No ‘bull-dust’, Mick Goss drops a bombshell

From small beginnings, the sometime lawyer fashioned the leading thoroughbred stud in the land and provided an ailing industry with vital, life-saving support at a time when apartheid’s bankruptcy threatened to scupper it.

Anyone who has heard Goss talking will attest to his rare gift of the gab. He’s a salesman supreme and a businessman – but get to know him and it becomes clear his success is not primarily due to what he calls his “bull-dust”, but grows from a genuine charm, irrepressible optimism and a natural generosity of spirit.

Summerhill Stud, a run-down farm in the 1970s, became South Africa’s 10-time champion breeder, largely thanks to the energy and acumen of Mick Goss and his wife Cheryl.

Many a famous racehorse – the likes of Senor Santa, Bianconi, Northern Princess, Angus, Imperious Sue, Amphitheatre, Imbongi and Igugu – grew up in the paddocks of Summerhill and adjoining Hartford, in the beautiful foothills of the Drakensberg outside Mooi River. Many a fine horseperson learnt and honed their craft in the adjacent barns, not to mention at the world-class Equine School of Excellence.

Then there’s the property’s award-winning Hartford House hotel, created from an historic farmhouse, once the home of imperial governors.

So, when Summerhill’s website posted news on Christmas eve 2019 of the Goss family having sold the farm, it was a shock to the racing system. Or, rather, it should have been. Timing of the announcement meant many minds were on holiday and missed it.

That might have been canny Mick’s strategy, mind you; his awareness that the racing industry did not need what might be construed as more bad news, of another big player getting out of the game.

The official announcement was quick to say Mick and Cheryl would stay on to run operations as before. Nonetheless, time is unstoppable and the sale is a marker of changing seasons at a holy racing place.

Mick, as ever, put on some spin: “…breeding racehorses is a business in which you can grow old, and the presence at Summerhill of six young stallions of high racing class is a sign that we have hope for the future. At the same time, we’ve encouraged the younger generation to keep their chins up in anticipation of the normalisation of our export protocols. Both of these things have become realities.”

He introduced the new owner: “Henning Pretorius is a devoted South African, a self-made, highly successful farmer and a horseman of considerable renown. In the equine sense, his Capital Stud is arguably the premier source of excellence in the production of sport horses on the African continent. We can think of no better combination of investor and driver of the future of the businesses and the brands which Summerhill and Hartford represent, than Henning Pretorius…

“The Goss family is going nowhere. Henning has generously accommodated our mutual wish to remain involved in the day-to-day activities of the business and to maintain our ties with our great friends and patrons of the farm and the hotel … having devoted a good deal of our working lives towards the reopening of the country’s export lanes, we look forward to participating in the largesse that will generate for the game’s players.”

I, for one, hope the singular Mick Goss continues to participate for some considerable time – including in largesse he so deserves.

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