The Scribantes of Piemonte Stud will be smiling following Bohica’s sterling victory in last weekend’s Listed Spring Spree Stakes at Turffontein, after all, the gelding is a timely first stakes winner for their new stallion acquisition Capetown Noir.
The Azzie-trained four-year-old, who claimed the notable scalp of multiple Gr3 winner Mr Flood in his previous outing, underlined his ability and overcame a wide draw to register a hat-trick of wins while scoring in the fashion of a horse capable of going on to bigger and better things.
Bohica wins the Listed Spring Spree Stakes (Pic – JC Photos)
Bred at Summerhill Stud, he hails from his sire’s first crop and is out of unraced Wysiwyg, a Mullins Bay half-sister to the stakes winning Kahal mare Mannequin.
Significantly, Capetown Noir has now joined What A Winter, Argonaut and Warm White as a stakes-producing son of Western Winter.
The country’s champion juvenile sire with his first crop, the late Lammerskraal powerhouse carried all before him early in the new millennium and was the country’s leading sire on three occasions. His death in 2013 was a sad loss, not just to the country’s stallion ranks but to Lammerskraal as well.
From the farm’s famed broodmare band, the son of Gone West sired Horse of the Year Yard-Arm, champion Ice Cube, as well as the Gr1 winners Surveyor, Set Afire, Fair Maiden, Solo Traveller, Red Ray, Redberry Lane and of course Capetown Noir.
Foaled in 2009 and a virtual ringer for his sire, the dark bay is out of homebred Broodmare of the Year Akinfeet.
Twice a winner in Dubai and third in the UAE 1000 Guineas, the daughter of Fort Wood scored once more at home before returning to the Lammerskraal paddocks and by the time she dropped Capetown Noir, had already produced four foals to Western Winter, including Across The Ice, who became a Gr2-placed Gr3 winner of 11 races and the filly Maxixe, who would join her dam at Lammerskraal as a stakes-placed winner of five.
Purchased for R1-million at the National Yearling Sale by Lady Laidlaw, Capetown Noir joined the stable of Dean Kannemeyer in whose capable hands he scored eight times from 1200m to 2000m.
Capetown Noir wins the Gr1 Cape Guineas
At his brilliant best over a mile, a blend of class and durability saw him complete the Cape Guineas/Derby/Queen’s Plate treble, while only the bob of a head stood between him and victory in all of the Gr1 HF Oppenheimer Horse Chestnut, Gr1 Daily News 2000 and Gr2 KRA Guineas.
His comprehensive defeat of Jackson in the L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate no doubt clinched him the title of Champion Miler, and deservedly so. Kannemeyer rated him as “the best miler I have trained, a magnificent mover with character and a terrific temperament.”
Capetown Noir’s retirement to Summerhill Stud in 2015 was more than fitting, as his grandam, the Gr1 Cape Fillies Guineas winner Dance Every Dance, is a daughter of the mighty Northern Guest, who was the cornerstone of the stud’s rise to fame.
Capetown Noir struck with his very first runner when the filly Brandina scored on debut.
She also became her sire’s first stakes performer, going down by a neck in the East Cape Fillies Nursery after running third in the Summer Juvenile Stakes at Kenilworth. Capetown Noir’s more than respectable seven first-crop juvenile winners also included Scarborough Fair, the first filly home when runner-up in the Listed Champion Juvenile Cup.
With the changing of the guard at Summerhill, Capetown Noir has relocated to Bush Hill Stud, where he will stand under the Piemonte banner and as a blue-blooded champion, offers KZN breeders access to a stallion who ticked all the boxes.
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