A SPECIAL EVENING WITH MICHAEL ROBERTS AND BASIL MARCUS

Mick Goss with Basil Marcus and Michael Roberts
(Photo : Alec Hogg)

"Legendary competitors in the saddle, fast friends today"

Alec Hogg
Graceland FarmLast week took me back to 1979 and my short spell at university in Pietermaritzburg. Money was tight, so any opportunity to earn was grabbed - tending the bar at Polo Tavern paid best. I also did my share of selling tickets at Woodburn Rugby Stadium.

That was the year when the racing bug took a strong hold on my young mind. Someone at the zoo we called William O'Brien Residence discovered that in horseraces where pace was key, your financial circumstances could be enhanced by having a bet on the kings of the turf, Michael Roberts and Basil Marcus. Particularly in races over 2000m or longer and especially either was riding a 6/1 chance. Have no idea what the precise record was, but the theory worked well enough for me to follow the formula as a matter of course.

Three decades and a bit later, and here we were having a spectacular dinner with these two legends. It was one of those special 'Hartford House' evenings hosted by my good friend, Summerhill's Mick Goss. This time it was to honour his VIP visitors, Australian racing personalities Vin Cox (MD of Magic Millions) and Rowena Smith (marketing boss at Aushorse). The Aussies were seated too far away for much talk-time. But with Roberts and Marcus close, it became an evening to remember.

First Michael, now 58 and one of KZN's top trainers. His relocation from the Karkloof to Summerveld has gone well. Verna Roberts tells me that although her husband leaves home at 4am every morning and often only returns at 6pm, he doesn't regard this as a hardship. The multiple SA and UK Champion Jockey loves his horses and having had years of doing a lot of the heavy lifting himself, really appreciates Gold Circle's services like tending Summerveld's tracks and daily removal of bedding. It's a happy yard. I've got the feeling we'll be soon seeing another big horse from Roberts.

Basil Marcus, who ten years ago made an immediate impact as a trainer with a string of top race winners including the legendary Jay Peg, returned from his Singaporean adventure a few months back and is delighted to be home in Cape Town. He is adamant that he won't be training again, preferring for now to spend time with his two Rhodesian Ridgebacks. That they cost R170,000 to bring back home from Singapore gives some idea how close they are to this former ace jockey.

Basil remembers a radio interview we had four years back, which was part of a series to enlighten the public about the attraction of buying racehorses. A bit like his one time boss Herman Brown Snr, Basil says he will be quietly in the background helping his 20-something son Adam who is now the family's licensed trainer. He remains a class act. Despite ample opportunity, he refused to point any fingers or even discuss a Singaporean campaign that didn't work out the way everyone hoped. He is proud, though, at the way the horses he took there have performed - four of his former inmates are among Singapore's top 10.

Given Marcus's global brand value, obvious intellect and engaging personality, it would be a terrible waste for him to drift off into early retirement. His unique insights into the Far East (6 times Hong Kong Champion Jockey) could be invaluable for this country's efforts to participate in the potentially explosive growth of Chinese racing. Apart from adding star appeal, Marcus would in my view have plenty of good ideas for Peter Gibson's Racing South Africa team. He should be roped in. Like last week.

What will stay with me most about the evening, though, was the way these great rivals in the saddle have remained such fast friends. Apart from banter about the other's waistlines (both claim to be impressive 32cm), good-natured stories about times together speak to a long, deep friendship.

Extract from www.gracelandfarm.co.za

Hartford House
Home of good conversation, fine wine and classic horses.

For more information please visit :
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WHAT'S LIFE WITHOUT A LITTLE LUXURY?

Dinner on the Hartford Verandah
(Photo : Cooked in Africa)

HARTFORD HOUSE
"The home of good conversation, fine wine and classic horses"

Alec Hogg
Graceland FarmWhat's life without a little luxury? And if you want to indulge, well, what's better than Hartford House?

Being close friends with Mick and Cheryl Goss has a lot of upside. My braaimaster skills and his red wine have produced some memorable Graceland evenings. Mick's got the sense to know that whatever his cullinary abilities they would pale next to the master chef Jackie Cameron who runs the kitchen at Hartford House. So his reciprocation is often an invite to a dinner at the only five star boutique hotel housed on a major stud farm. Especially when interesting guests grace our district with their presence.

Last week was one of those memorable evenings. Remgro's top duo Thys Visser (CEO) and Jannie Durand (CIO) were convinced to overnight at Hartford by their fellow Rainbow Chickens director Bill Lambert. Although I've known and admired Thys for years, this was the first time I'd met Bill Lambert, former Gold Circle chairman and, as you might expect, another infected with the horse disease. It's a pity, Bill is as articulate as he is charming - and judging by what Jannie Durand explained, deeply loyal too, a trait to admire.

Jannie, a Rhodes Scholar and former CEO of Venfin, was having his first visit to the Midlands. He promised to return soon. Hopefully Mr Visser will too. But I'm afraid despite Mick's best efforts - which included a personally guided tour and a close-up look at a covering - neither Thys nor Jannie opened their wallets to invest in our wonderful sport. Not yet, anyway.

The occasion was brightened by the inclusion of newcomers to the district, Cape Town asset manager William Meyer and his wife Claire. They've relocated to a farm called Balenso's that's directly opposite Summerhill and share their new home with a handful of warmbloods and even more dogs than Graceland's five. The other new faces for Jet and I were Midlands icons Guy and Di Smith - he the golf course developer of Prince's Grant and, more recently, Nottingham Road's spectacular Gowrie.

Guy is the elder brother of the Natal and SA wicketkeeper batsman "Titch", a man who has dedicated his life to serving God and does it by putting together projects that help hundreds of vulnerable people in rural KZN. Quite a family. Look forward to meeting Titch as well one day. Much that was said last evening will stay with me. Especially Guy's impassioned speech about breaking the commercial mould - chucking away return on investment calculations and, rather, to, instead, create the exceptional. He did that at Gowrie and has invited us to come see what's called "Guy's Folly" - a spectacular, massively over-capitalised home that dominates the development. Can't wait.

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EATSPLORERS TOP 10 DESTINATIONS AND RESTAURANTS

Please click above to view photos of Hartford House...

UNFORGETTABLE TIMES FOR SUMMERHILL AND HARTFORD

Summerhill Stud has had one of the best few weeks in its racing history, with two Guineas winners in Pierre Jourdan and Fisani, an international ace in Imbongi, a thirty-one time winner in Hear The Drums, and the winners of the Egoli Mile in Smajemanje and the Fairview Mile in Vangelis.

No to be outdone though, Hartford House has earned a few more stripes. Just last week, the celebrated gourmet and luxury travel website, Eatsplorers, named Hartford in both its top ten restaurants and its top ten accommodation establishments. For the record, it was the only establishment in the country to make the top ten in both categories. This is what Eatsplorers had to say about Hartford :

"We were in KZN for a wedding and decided to make use of the opportunity to spend some time at one of KZN's top getaways and culinary destinations. It is not a long drive from Durban and if you are living in Gauteng it is pretty easy to get there, but coming from the Cape, it takes a bit more planning and travel. The effort to get there however is certainly worth it, idyllic living in the middle of a very impressive stud farm with horses and other animals surrounding you. We arrived in the afternoon and were given a refreshing cocktail before retiring to our room for a well-deserved nap after the previous evening's wedding festivities. We awoke, all ready for the dinner that evening and joined the rest of the guests for pre-dinner drinks in the main house.

We had had a glimpse of the five-course menu and were really excited to see what was to be produced. We enjoyed a glass or two of bubbly with some canapés, which wet our appetites for the main attraction. The wine list is excellent with a host of fantastic wines to choose from at what must be the best pricing I have seen in quite a while. They really allow you to enjoy your food with very reasonably priced wines. To illustrate this point we enjoyed a bottle of Chocolate Block on the Friday night and Meerlust Rubicon on the Saturday night without getting a call from the bank manager. I am surprised though that a wine pairing was not offered with the dinners, as this would certainly elevate the experience even higher than its current lofty heights.

Mick Goss, the owner, took us through a brief history of Hartford House and then left us in the extremely capable hands of Jackie Cameron. What a feast, it was exceptional. The caramelised onion soup was fantastic, so was the salmon main course, the dessert and the cheeses, but the standout dish for me on the Friday night was the spicy lamb bunny chow which had a wonderful richness and depth in flavour that left me thinking that I would certainly like a main portion of that. A wonderful elegant interpretation of what is a favourite dish in South Africa.

This left us very excited about the Saturday evening meal as it would be a completely new menu. Before dinner Mick Goss, with his wonderful story telling ability, gave us a history of the area including the many wars that have been fought there and we were then treated to some Zulu war dancing by the local youngsters, very very impressive indeed. Jackie had a lot to live up to and did not disappoint, we thought she even outdid her efforts of the Friday night.

Again, all courses were delicious, but the one that stood out for us and was probably the best dish of the weekend was the fillet with shitake butter, truffle infused potato crème with a fantastic truffle sauce. This dish really set itself apart from the others with its wonderful textures and stunning flavours. In fact, the truffle sauce was so good that we requested some bread to mop up what was left on the plate. Hey, if the Europeans can do it then so can we!

Not only does Jackie provide fantastic dinners, she also provides the most different, in a good sense, breakfast menu I think we have ever seen. It really is very funky and we spent some time deciding on what to eat. Luckily we had two days of breakfasts so that we had a number of goes at trying out different dishes from her menu. They were all very good and we really enjoyed the banana smoothie, jungle oats with whisky, cream and sugar, the omelet and the traditional English breakfast. To top the main breakfast off we enjoyed the desserts, particularly the bucks fizz as it was cold and refreshing on a hot spring morning.

Hartford House really is a fantastic venue and is highly, highly recommended if you have the chance to visit. The setting, surroundings and best of all, the food is fantastic. This fact is borne out by it screaming into our top 10 destinations and restaurants. A very special destination indeed!"

AT LAST, THE WORLD IS SITTING UP

Hartford Zulu Dancers
(Photo : Summerhill Stud)

AMASNAMUVA

For the last thirteen years, Hartford has championed the cause of Amasnamuva (performers), our Zulu traditional dance troupe, who begged the boss for an audition shortly after the opening of Hartford House as a boutique hotel. Having grown up in Pondoland, he’d seen more traditional dancers than most, and thinking that this might be more of the same, Mick Goss turned up for the audition on a Sunday morning with rather long teeth. Several of the troupe were tender young seedlings of eight and nine years of age, but turn up they did, beautifully regaled (at their own expense) in what it takes to perform this ancient art. They deposited their drums, girded with animal hides, on the flat turf in front of the hotel gazebo, and they beat them with garden hoses in a fashion he’d never encountered before. The remainder of these kids danced their socks off, and they were so good, Mick told them that henceforth, they’d be a permanent fixture for the pleasure of our guests every Saturday evening, weather permitting.

Until three years ago, they’d never ventured much further than Mooi River, but at the first opportunity, won the KZN Provincial Championships and the right to attend the National Championships, which they proceeded to win as well. Miraculously, this earned them a place at the World Traditional Dance Championships in Tokyo where, of 46 contesting nations, they finished third in the whole dam world!. A year later, they were in Hong Kong, and in their second place, they earned the title of Best Dance Troupe on the African continent. We fully expected them to take the World Championship in the United States this year, but sadly that contest was postponed because of that country’s financial plight.

It seems though, the word is out. Writing in “The Mercury” on Monday, Latoya Newman writes :

What was once a form of cultural dance used by a people to celebrate weddings, the inauguration of a King, winning a war, the birth of a child and more, is fast becoming an artistic dance expression that has crowds mesmirised the world over.

Over the years, Zulu dancing has evolved into a stage phenomenon which many dance schools and professionals have not only embraced on its own, but have merged with other dance forms of dance to create the ever popular "fusion".

Its popularity became more obvious on SA's Got Talent.

Kee-Leen Irvine, executive producer for Rapid Blue who produced the show said it saw about 100 cultural dance groups, many of then Zulu cultural items.

"The response from the audience, across cultures, to these items was phenomenal."

Beside the increasing interest in these forms of dance, what is also apparent is that over the years more and more people from other cultural backgrounds are embracing Zulu dance forms.

Xolani Majozi, theatre producer and compiler at K-Cap, an arts development company based in KwaMashu, said his group - which has toured the country and the world - is always well received.

"Whenever we do a theatre or musical production we make sure it is traditional, because of its appeal to the audience, especially international audiences. When you go overseas and you say you are doing a South African production, they expect to see Zulu dance.

"Umoja and IpiNtombi, for example, have toured in different countries and Zulu dancing has made those groups famous. Zulu dancing is being embraced across cultures.

Even if you look back at groups like Johnny Clegg and Juluka and Savuka, what made them popular was the Zulu element," said Majozi.

Professor Musa Xulu, a Durban-based ethno-musicologist and heritage consultant, said every society had some form of dance that became "folk" dance.

"From time to time people use these dance forms for commercial reasons and Zulu dance is no different," he said.

Xulu said Zulu dance was "perfected" in the hostels and mines with competitions that took place on weekends, especially in Durban.

"But at that time people danced for social reasons, like for courtship and so on. Over the past 15 years or so, a commercial element has started creeping in. Among other things, the "brand" Zulu has become a recognised brand across the world because of history," he said.

Xulu said today most dancers came from township areas because young people there have recognised "the gap in the market" and that if you had a Zulu dance product and added modern elements to it, you had popular dance. "It is a way to make a living, so it is commercialised."

Xulu said it was good that other people from different cultures were participating.

"Any art form grows a lot when people from diverse backgrounds enter it. If you look at pennywhistle music, for example, once Mango Groove embraced it, it became a world phenomenon. People from diverse backgrounds will come with different ideas," he said.

As is the case with the Surialanga Dance Company. Artistic Director Suria Govender said they embraced a fusion of cultures in their performances, which had travelled abroad.

She believes that not only will Zulu dance continue to grow in the arts, but that fusion (a mix of Zulu, Indian and other cultural dances) will also become trendier.

"It is an expression of our identity as South Africans. We are a melting pot of cultures and the arts is one way for us to see how we understand where we are at," she said.

SIYABONGA, BAKHITI

REFLECTIONS IN A SILVER SPOON

I’m sitting in what is about to become my wife’s new bedroom, in a new house. “Hers” it became when we passed the budget for the third time!

The fold-away doors, all 8 metres of them, have given way to a World Heritage site. To my left lies Ntaba Nquno, where General Botha took command of the Boer forces in November 1899. His predecessor, General Joubert, hero of the first Anglo Boer War, had been wounded the day before at the Battle of Willow Grange, hence the change in O.C.

In the foreground lies one of the planet’s most enchanting valleys, and right here beneath this great hillside, lies the nation’s Champion Racehorse stud. Now I know what the British, the Zulus and the Boers were fighting so furiously about. This is God’s own, and they fought more ferociously for this territory than they did for any other.

Think about that. The British at the time, held dominion over two thirds of the earth’s surface, yet here is where the Empire engaged itself so earnestly, for its greatest military moments, as well as its worst. Since starting this note, I’ve had to walk across the courtyard at the rear of this house, and besides realising my wife got carried away with the size (our plans are simply jotted on the back of exam pads in this part of Zululand, so it’s easy to miscalculate), I also know that, for once in my life, I got really lucky. I married a genius.

The lakeside suites at Hartford House have long borne testimony to her creative talents. The occupancies tell us that, and the admiration of both the architectural and the decorating world confirm it. But “her” house is surely her finest moment.

That said, it really is larger than it should be, and perched beautifully as it is, it’s also a bit on the conspicuous side for a Zulu farmer who still comes to work in a Corsa bakkie, clad in khakis and veldskoens. So I’ve spent the morning planting trees to “hide” it a little!. Equally, this was not the time to be building, though it’s been a 2.5 year project for all the interruptions my management have brought on my builders in the time. You never want to be “splashing out” on a personal indulgence when there are others in pain. The timing was not good, though it might’ve been, had we completed it in 2007 when we first started. My team keeps saying, “purge your conscience, you’ve slaved for it”. I’m consoled only slightly. But it’s to them that Cheryl and I turn with our thanks. In our time here, they’ve run the hard yards with us, they made the sacrifices and at last, they’ve too, reaped their rewards.

Siyabonga, Bakhiti