NEWS THE TEAM THE METHOD GETTING STARTED FAMOUS HORSES STATISTICS ROSTER LINKS



February 16, 2008


TEMAIR SCORES BY A LENGTH AS FAVORITE ON SATURDAY IN CAPE TOWN,
FIRST SO AFRICAN 2YO RUNNER OF 2008 KICKS THINGS OFF FOR STABLE,
NEXT GROUP OF SO AFRICAN YEARLINGS TO BE BOUGHT IN APRIL BY IRWIN


Temair cruises home under Bernard Fayd’Herbe in dash on Saturday.
Temair roared to the front inside the final furlong when given her head by Bernard Fayd’Herbe and won by a length on Saturday in Cape Town running 6 furlongs up the straight at Kenilworth race course for trainer Mike Bass.

The daughter of Tara’s Halls, bought by Barry Irwin for $50,000 at the National Yearling Sale in May of 2007 because she reminded him of the sire’s Champion daughter and former Team Valor runner Tara’s Touch, Temair becomes the first winner among the 10 fillies acquired last spring at the sale.

Irwin plans to return to the public auction in Germiston just outside of Johannesburg for the 2008 sale of yearlings in South Africa. For a fourth consecutive year, Irwin will buy some yearlings and offer them for syndication.

The game plan, which consists of buying yearlings, racing them initially in South Africa and importing the best ones, has been spectacularly successful. From the first two crops of yearling fillies, 8 have started so far, and 4 of them (50 percent) are Graded stakes winners, two of them Grade 1 winners.

The first group included Grade 1 winner Little Miss Magic, who is now being trained in France by Alain Royer-Dupre, and Sally Bowles, winner of the Grade 2 Fillies Guineas in Durban, where she was voted the Champion at 2 and 3.


Temair exhibited a massive hip as a yearling last year in So Africa.
The second group included Grade 1 Classic winner Captain’s Lover, best in 5 of 7 starts, including the Cape Fillies Guineas and a probable Champion in the making. She is headed to the French yard of Andre Fabre to a late European season. Also in this group is Grade 2-winning Strelitzia stakes hero Stately, who is in Florida preparing for her United States debut.

Dispatched as the favorite in spite of some late action for two other fillies that were making their first race course appearances, Temair was fancied because she has gained the experience of a previous race, in which she finished a good second 19 days earlier.

Debutantes Sugar Club, a full sister to recent $1-million acquisition Warrior Man, and the race second Ascending Lark, trained by Glen Kotzen, received plenty of action with the bookies and on the tote, as the former at one point was actually favored, while the latter took all the late money.

Temair, obviously benefiting from a run, raced handy in fourth and then third much of the way and she bolted to a daylight advantage once she was given the office. She won a shade comfortably, as the English are wont to say, and her ears were pricked as she crossed under the wire a length to the good, after traversing the 6 furlongs on the uphill straight into a head wind.

The yearlings were divided into two groups named the Ladysmith and Gosforth LLCs. Temair hails from the Ladysmith LLC, which derived its named from singing group Ladysmith Black Mambazo that backed up Paul Simon on his hit African inspired album “Graceland.”


Temair being led in Saturday at Kenilworth by
assistant trainer Mrs. Candice Bass Robinson.
Temair wore the distinctive silks of Anant and wife Vanashree Singh of Durban, whose colors mirror the flag of the Republic of South Africa, where Mr. Singh produces films of international acclaim.

The winner was named by Team Valor International partner Joan Bull of Roswell, New Mexico and is gaelic for the Hill of Tara, where 142 kings reigned according to myth. Another interpretation of Temair is that is means “a place of great prospect,” which seems fitting for Temair, the daughter of Tara’s Halls.

Temair was bred and consigned to the National Yearling Sale by Hymie Maisel, whose son-in-law Vidrik Thurling is the Deputy Chairman of Gold Circle, one of the two racing associations in South Africa. Seated next to Thurling at the sale was ex-Champion jockey Basil Marcus, who fell in love with the filly and encouraged his client to keep bidding against Team Valor. The two bidders were locked in a protracted duel from the very beginning until the final bid, as it rose a paltry $3,000 at a clip. “She had a longest, most well-developed hip of any filly I saw in the sale,” said Barry Irwin. “She really did remind me of Tara’s Touch, whose backside was broad enough to hold a Team Valor International picnic on!”

Barry Irwin chanced to meet Maisel the next morning at breakfast, where the breeder strongly suggested the filly be sent to Marcus. This did not happen, but Marcus was sent another horse by Team Valor.

Temair is by Tara’s Halls out of Rock And Roll, by Rakeen. She is the dam’s third foal to race and win. The trio has 8 wins to date. The dam was a 2-time winning half-sister to the multiple stakes winner Nilgiri, an 8-time winner. The next dam was the grandam of Champion 2-year-old Kashwan. This filly’s broodmare sire Rakeen is the sire of Leading Sire Jet Master, sire for trainer Mike Bass of his all-time great current runner Pocket Power, who last month became the first horse to win back-to-back renewals of the Grade 1 J & B Met and Grade 1 Queen’s Plate raced at Kenilworth race course.