The first thing that one you will notice about Sorrento Stud Farm is that it is surrounded by the serene Cederberg mountain dream, that you can view in its entire glory. Now that you have that image in your head, add some of the most gorgeous horses on the planet to that view. This is the kind of stuff that dreams sequences in the movies are made of and that is exactly what Annabel Andrews does. Live the dream.
Along with her husband Terry, Annabel has taken Sorrento Farms to be recognized as an example of what a thoroughbred farm must aspire to be. Be it the selection, training or overall grooming of the lot.
Sorrento Farms has regularly been displaying one of the largest drafts at every Cape Town Thoroughbred ready to run the sale. Needless to say, this year will be no different as well. The draft is loaded with Grade A quality Thoroughbreds. As one would imagine, this is achieved only meticulous planning and attention to detail in executing those plans.
We had a brief chat with Annabel Andrews of the Sorrento Stud farms. She gave a little peek into this year's draft. Her most expensive horse and what goes into running a successful farm. Take a look.
Q: Once again you have one of the largest drafts coming into this sale. Could you tell us a bit more about the horses in your draft and why you think their sale prices are going to be knocked out of the ball-park?
A: It is our biggest and probably our best draft on the Ready To Run Sale. We have several youngsters from the first crop of Triple Crown winner, Louis The King including the colt World So High, a half brother to feature race winner last season (at 2) What You Are, 2 beautiful first foal fillies from Hope Down and Ilium as well as a beautiful colt for Light Of Dawn (Trippi mare out of a sister to Val De Ra), 4-time winner Casha also has her first foal, a precocious colt by Louis The King.
We also offer a stunning Vercingetorix filly out of the Badger Land mare Calais, a well related Querari filly, out of a winning full sister to Hot Ticket, 2 Global View colts, a Soft Falling Rain colt from a strong family as well as others by Elusive Fort, Philanthropist, Pomodoro filly who shows a lot of speed, 2 Master Of My Fate fillies and a Pathfork colt.
A really smart bunch of well-grown horses.
Q: How long have you been coming to this sale and what was the most expensive horse you have ever sold at this sale?
A: We have been supporting the Ready To Run sale in Cape Town since its inception when run by Lionel Cohen. We sold an Oratorio colt for R550 and several over the R400 000 mark. Possibly the best horse we sold was Big City Life who won the July. Others include Elusive Trader (who ran 3rd in the Ready To Run Race and 2nd in the CTS 10 Million rand race, he sold at this sale for R300 000), Davide was very successful in Singapore. We had 7 horses in our draft last year of which 5 are now winners, 1 has been placed and one has not run. 3 of them in the 22 horse entry for the 2.5 million CTS Ready To run from a catalogue of 117 horses.
Q: How do you plan your matings? How well in-advance are they planned?
A: We plan our matings based on conformation, as well as consulting Gold Mine and True Nicks as a reference for compatibility on the bloodline. We usually have our matings finalised before the start of each breeding season in September.
Q: Please tell us a bit about your mare lines and some recent racing successes of your homebreds?
A: Horses we have bred include Group 1 winner Badgers Gift, Nocturnal Affair (the Cape Of Good Hope Nursery winner who went on to win in Dubai, England and Ireland and was nominated for International Horse Of The Year, The Badger won 11 and we recently own and bred the Winter Derby winner Dharma.
Q: Who is your most favourite horse in the world and why?
A: Favourite by far is Winx as we lucky enough to visit her with our son at Rosehill Stables in Sydney, Australia.
Published In The Impact 23 Issue, 2 Vol
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