Capetown Noir moves to Heversham Park

Capetown Noir moves to Heversham Park

FROM BUSINESS DAY LIVE:
By David Mollett

Heversham Park Farm, run by advocate Nigel Riley and his wife Katerina, recently hit the racing headlines when revealing they will be standing one of the best performing horses in the country, Capetown Noir.

One of the quotes from golf legend Gary Player looks relevant as Heversham — situated in the south of Gauteng — bids to make the stud a serious player as a stallion station and broodmare facility.          

Player said: “Simply by making the effort to start something, you will be miles ahead of almost everyone else.”

In an illustrious career, Capetown Noir won three grade 1 races with victories in the Cape Guineas, Cape Derby and Queen’s Plate. Interestingly, one of the horses he beat in the King’s Plate was Jackson, who also stands at Heversham.

When Capetown Noir, a son of Western Winter, joined Mick Goss’s Summerhill Stud in 2014, the many-times champion breeder said: “This is the best racehorse to set foot on the property since National Emblem.”

Speaking in a Sporting Post article last week about the horse’s new home, Goss said: “Nobody will tell you it’s easy to get a stallion ‘back on the map’, as it were, but if Capetown Noir gets mares of decent quality and substance, I don’t see any reason why he can’t sire more top-level winners.”

Katerina Riley commented: “We are excited to give Capetown Noir a fresh start to his career. He’s a loving and intelligent type and he is making friends on the farm.” His stud fee is R5,000 (live foal).

One of Capetown Noir’s daughters, Capetown Beauty, a four-time winner, made a bold bid for another victory when collared close to home in the fifth race — the KZN Breeders 1900 — at Greyville on Sunday.

The four-year-old, trained by Wayne Badenhorst and ridden by Derryl Daniels, was bred at Clifton Stud and has proved a money-spinner for her owners. Her second place on Sunday netted R27,000. The winner of the race, Pirate Prince, was chalking up his third win for trainer Alyson Wright.

The Rileys went shopping at last Friday’s Cape Winter Sale and acquired eight mares and two weanlings for R120,000.

“We came more or less exactly what we came for, including a mare by Trippi and Jet Master. We are very excited as we’ve been planning to boost our broodmare band for Capetown Noir and our other two stallions, Jackson and Moofeed.”