Home comforts keeping Canford Cliffs in mint condition for former cricketer

It is somehow already 13 years since the most arresting performance of Canford Cliffs’ racing career, when he barely broke sweat in winning the Coventry Stakes by six lengths.

Almost 11 years have passed since his final outing against Frankel in the 'Duel on the Downs' at Goodwood, after which he spent six seasons at Coolmore Stud in Ireland.

Nevertheless, there seems to be a strong feeling in South Africa that the best is yet to come now he has returned to the status of a young buck at the Kieswetter family’s Ridgemont Highlands.

Among the top-selling sires at the recent Cape Premier Yearling Sale, he has already made an early impression in the nascent calendar of juvenile races.

"It’s very exciting for us. He holds a very dear place with the family as he also represents when we took over the farm. He was our first serious interest in bringing international bloodlines into the country, which is something we’ve tried to continue to do," explains Craig
Kieswetter, the former England international cricketer who is now deeply involved at the Western Cape stud.

"He’s got his first South African-bred crop running and he’s started extremely well. A colt of his [Cliff Top] won the first juvenile stakes race and he’s currently leading the freshman sire log here, so now we just want him to continue banging out those winners.

Sporting star Craig Kieswetter is now a mainstay at the family farmCredit: Laura Green

"Cliff Top won very well over 1,000m and had travelled down from Port Elizabeth to run on the Met Day, a huge meeting at Kenilworth. Canford Cliffs was really an out-and-out miler but what we’ve found with his progeny is that they certainly have speed but definitely
appreciate 1,200m; the 1,000m can be a touch on the sharp side.

"As foals we’re ecstatically delighted with what he throws and all the reports I’m getting from the trainers that have his horses in their stables is they are fantastic movers and step up and do exactly what is asked of them."

The Kieswetter family, assisted by Craig Carey, took on the farm at Robertson from the Beck family in 2017 and, not long afterwards, acquired Canford Cliffs from Coolmore following a discussion with their close friends Peter and Ross Doyle.

The son of Tagula, who won an Irish Guineas among four Group 1s, was bought by those same agents as a yearling.

"We’d have been silly to turn down a horse of that capability as a racehorse, and as a stallion he’s sired winners in more than 30 different countries around the world and his progeny have earned more than R330,000,000 [over £16m].

"To be a freshman sire in South Africa with the stats behind him that he has is quite remarkable," Kieswetter says.

Canford Cliffs has joined a four-strong roster alongside champion sprinter Rafeef, Potala Palace, whose high-achieving son Katak has headed to Singapore in search of greater riches, and new arrival Malmoos, who was only the fourth horse in history to win the South
African Triple Crown, for Shadwell and Mike de Kock last year.

Canford Cliffs has made a bright start with his South African-bred juvenilesCredit: Jeremy Nelson/Ridgemont Highlands

Its Irish champion juvenile Pathfork has relocated to the smaller Sandown Stud.

Kieswetter describes Canford Cliffs as "an absolute gentleman" but reports that he has one particular eccentricity.

"The courier company loves me as I’ve got a continual shipment of Polo mints that come in for him," he says.

"I tried to give him the South African version but he’s quite stuck in his ways, so I’ve had to bring the UK ones down for him. He’s 15, so he’s not a spring chicken, but he’s not ancient yet either. He’s sort of the gentle older soul around the stallion barn."

Kieswetter adds: "Looking back through the history of this farm there’s been a very strong stallion presence, from Persian Wonder, Badger Land, Elevation and Jallad to Dynasty, who was a complete farm champion and incredible for the whole industry.

"Since we took over we’ve been very proactive in upgrading our broodmare band and making massive inroads in bringing our farm back in terms of stallion power. Rafeef is very much a sprinting sire, Canford Cliffs a sprinter-miler and Malmoos would look to be more
your classic 2,000 metre type of sire. I think we’ve got a nice balance."

Dual hemispheres

Implementing a plan to internationalise their breeding operation has seen the Kieswetter family develop Barnane Stud in County Tipperary, as both a satellite base and one to produce horses for European racing and sales.

The tortuous process of exportation from South Africa, owing to the concerns and red tape of African Horse Sickness, remains a frustration, but import has provided another valuable option.

"It’s much easier to bring horses in, which is something we’re keen to take advantage of," Kieswetter explains.

"We have a couple of fillies and colts by Snitzel, Maurice and Press Statement that we’ve bred out of our mares when they were based in Australia, and we’re bringing down others by the likes of Zoffany, now that they have relocated to our Irish operation.

Pretty Polly winner Urban Fox's first foal is going into training with William HaggasCredit: Patrick McCann

"We’ve got about half a dozen mares, alongside our northern hemisphere breeding operation, in Ireland breeding to southern hemisphere time.

"We have a mare by Foxwedge, Run Fox Run, who beat the boys in last year’s Cape Flying Championship, and we sent her to be covered by Frankel. So we’re looking at top-quality stallions overseas to bring back to race and upgrade our bloodlines."

Among the northern hemisphere band are Curragh Group 3 winner Chrysanthemum, dam of Frankel’s pathfinder Cunco, Oasis Dream mare Button Down, who took a Graded race in the United States, Listed winner Dorcas Lane, who has produced the useful Atty Persse, and Apphia, a Group 3-winning mare by High Chaparral.

Very much the leading lady on European shores, though, is Urban Fox, who won the 2018 Pretty Polly Stakes and ran second in the Group 1 Nassau and Prix Jean Romanet (the latter by a neck), in the green and red Barnane silks.

"Her first foal, a colt by Dubawi, is going to go into training with William Haggas, so that’s quite exciting as William trained Urban Fox," says Kieswetter.

"She’s certainly the cornerstone of Barnane Stud, it’s the holy grail to win a Group 1, and so to win one and send your mare to Dubawi is the sort of thing dreams are made of. She’s been to Dubawi twice, with two colts, and this year will be foaling down a Frankel filly."

While known more for his prowess in one-day and Twenty20 cricket, Kieswetter is well aware that breeding is very much the long-form part of the thoroughbred game.

"It’s an international programme but everyone realises it doesn’t happen overnight," he says. "With good direction, gameplan and strategy we feel we’re on the right path to create something really special."

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