Just like beauty is not skin deep, a catalogue page does not always reflect the true worth of a pedigree.
Hence when champion elect Quid Pro Quo toured the KZN sales ring as a yearling, there were no takers, not surprising, given that her catalogue page reflected a female line showing a distinct lack of black-type up front.
Lance’s daughter Quid Pro Quo (Smanga Khumalo) makes history on Sunday as she flies home ahead of Fatal Flaw under Piere Strydom (Pic – Candiese Lenferna)
History shows that owner/breeder Gerald Kalil bought back his filly for just R60,000. Horses do not know what they cost and Quid Pro Quo has certainly made a mockery of looking at quality through the lens of black type.
Now a dual Gr1 winner, the Barend Botes-trained miss has stepped into the history books as the only juvenile filly to win the coveted Gr1 Douglas Whyte Stakes, Gr1 Allan Robertson Championship and Gr2 Golden Slipper, a feat worthy of championship honours.
Given her less than blue-blooded background, pedigree pundits will be quick to call her a ‘freak’, so let’s analyse her pedigree.
Quid Pro Quo is a daughter of the sadly neglected Lance, a stakes winning son of the mighty Jet Master, arguably the best locally-bred stallion of modern times.
Quid Pro Quo’s sire Lance in action under Anthony Delpech during his short racing career (Pic – Supplied)
A horse who showed infinite promise before injury put paid to his racing career, Lance was trained by Sean Tarry and made the transition to stakes winner in just his third start with an emphatic three-length drubbing of unbeaten favourite and subsequent Triple Crown winner Louis The King in the Listed Sea Cottage Stakes at Turffontein.
Sadly, injury limited Lance’s career to just six starts, which prompted Tarry to reflect: “Such a tragedy, he was amazingly talented, at least as good as his Gr1 winning brother Liege, and perhaps even more naturally so.”
From the family of champion sprinter Rebel King, Lance is one of a trio of stakes winners out of Gr1 winner Lyrical Linda, who defeated champions Jamaica and Overarching in the prestigious Garden Province Stakes.
The daughter of Jallad also produced Gr1 Summer Cup hero Liege to Dynasty, while Lance’s own brother Lockheed Jetstar won the Listed Thukela Handicap.
As for the bottom half of Quid Pro Quo’s pedigree, she is out of the five-time winner Delightfull Diva, whose previous best foal was Daring Diva, a daughter of the English 2000 Guineas winner but hugely disappointing stallion King Of Kings.
She too was trained by Botes and proved she had a touch of class by carrying the Kalil silks to victory in the Listed Ruffian Stakes and running third in the Gr2 SA Fillies Nursery.
Delightfull Diva is by The Sheik, whom Dennis Drier trained to complete the Gr1 Cape Derby/SA Guineas double. An Al Mufti own brother to the champion sprinter Al Nitak, the pair were out of Oaks Trial winner Jessamine, a half-sister to the Gr1 Mercury Sprint hero Shoe Express.
The Sheik’s female line traces its origins to the American import Ofa, an unraced half-sister to Irish Derby and King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes hero Ragusa. She of course went on to lasting fame as the dam of one of the greats of the South African turf, the three time Horse of the Year Politician.
Notwithstanding his fine bloodlines and racetrack achievements, The Sheik failed to spark the interest of breeders at a time when locally-bred stallions were regarded as inferior to imported ones, hence he managed to sire just a handful of stakes performers.
Quid Pro Quo’s grandam Delightful Miss, by the Gr1 Mainstay winner and French 2000 Guineas third Sapieha, won once as a juvenile and in addition to Delightfull Diva, also counted the six-time winner Special Club amongst her four winning foals.
The next dam Delectable Miss, a one-time winner by the failed Riverman horse Jabal Tarik, was no great shakes either.
She proved a prolific mare as the dam of no less than 14 foals, seven of which became winners, the best of which was Delegator, who scored five times.
Clearly, apart from Daring Diva, there was little to enthuse about in the first three generations of Quid Pro Quo’s female family and one has to delve down to fourth dam Malang-Lou to find worthwhile black type.
This Irish-bred daughter of Auction Ring was a juvenile winner for Jim Bolger and finished third in the Gr3 Nishapour Curragh Stakes prior to her arrival in South Africa.
She blossomed in the African sun, adding another five wins to her tally, including the Gr3 Majorca Stakes, whilst gaining valuable Gr1 black type with a third in the Cape of Good Hope Paddock Stakes.
Sadly, she too, proved a disappointment as a broodmare, notwithstanding the fact that she visited elite stallions such as Foveros, Elliodor and Dancing Champ.
It would not be unreasonable to state that Quid Pro Quo has risen above her humble pedigree, and to a certain degree, that could also apply to three-year-old filly Red Palace.
Red Palace is led in by Terry Fripp, Candice Bass-Robinson, Jo Campher and Siyabonga Mtobisa (Pic – Chase Liebenberg)
Trained by Candice Bass-Robinson, she almost stole the Hollywoodbets Gr1 Cape Guineas earlier this season, won the Listed Stormsvlei Stakes, and on Sunday capped her sophomore campaign with a heart-stopping victory in the Gr2 Riding High Together Gold Bracelet.
Unlike Quid Pro Quo, she never saw the inside of a sales ring, but she too, is by an underrated stallion in Potala Palace and sports a page light on immediate black-type.
That her sire Potala Palace is neglected by breeders remains a bit of a mystery. A quality individual, he first hit the limelight when knocked down to trainer Mike Azzie for R3,6-million at the 2010 National Yearling Sale, which was also the second-highest price of the sale.
Conceived in the UK, he is by the bona fide champion racehorse Singspiel, who, like his half-brothers Rahy and Rakeen, became an eminent stallion. Considering that Singspiel’s progeny generally showed a tendency to thrive over ground and took some time to come to hand, Potala Palace proved an exception, excelling at two, rare for a horse inbred 4 x 3 to English Derby winner Shirley Heights.
As a juvenile, Potala Palace stamped himself a potential superstar with a sublime front-running performance in the Gr1 Premier’s Champion Stakes at Hollywoodbets Greyville. Remarkably, that was just his third start and came on the back of a six-length maiden romp at Turffontein.
Red Palace’ sire Potala Palace (Singspiel – Alignment by Alzao) in the paddock (Pic – Ridgemont)
Given his credentials, Potala Palace received only scant support from breeders when he retired to stud, to the extent that his first two crops numbered less than 40 foals apiece, yet produced the Gr1 SA Fillies Sprint victress Singforafa, undefeated Winter Series winner Katak, Gr3 Pretty Polly Stakes winner Palace Of Dreams, Gr1 Mercury Sprint third Palace Chapel, and Gr1 Thekwini Stakes third Snow Palace.
That he capitalised on the success of Singforafa and Katak in particular brought him better patronage and guaranteed him a three-figure book of mares in 2019, the resultant crop, his biggest to date, yielding Red Palace and 27 other three-year-old winners.
Breeders forget about stallions very quickly if they don’t get big race winners all the time and sad to say, support for Potala Palace dwindled to single figures last spring.
Not unlike Quid Pro Quo, Red Palace is from a family light on black-type under the first three dams.
Bred by Terry Andrews at his Sorrento Stud, she is the second foal and winner out of stakes-placed In Limine, a four-time winner trained by Greg Ennion. Third in the Listed Sun Classique Handicap, she is a daughter of yet another neglected stallion in Jay Peg.
A dual classic winner of the Gr1 Cape Guineas/Derby, the champion went on to become a formidable international performer with victories in the Gr1 Dubai Duty Free and Gr1 Singapore International Cup, before returning to South Africa. By the short-lived A P Indy stallion Camden Park out of a mare by Al Mufti, the salient point of his pedigree was the duplication of renowned ‘sire making’ broodmare Lassie Dear, who is the dam of Al Mufti and grandam of A P Indy. Potent stuff.
A top-class racehorse, Jay Peg never reached the same lofty heights as a stallion, siring just nine stakes winners, the best of which would be Gr2 Cape Merchants winner Silicone Valley.
Larking Around, the dam of In Limine, was imported in utero when the Jaffees acquired her dam, the Australian bred Making Whoopee. By the outstanding racehorse and top sire Montjeu, Larking Around scored once at three and produced seven winners from as many runners. In additon to In Limine, she is also the dam of Romi’s Boy, a Gr2/3 placed sprint son of Querari.
Making Whoopee, by champion sprinter Anabaa, won once in Australia but as a full/half-sister to no less than three Gr1 winners, her appeal as a broodmare prospect was there for all to see. And yet, despite liaisons with top stallions Western Winter, Silvano, Trippi and Captain Al, she made little impact as a broodmare and for now, it would seem that the revival of the family fortunes rests solely with In Limine.
Clearly, the excellence in the pedigrees of both Quid Pro Quo and Red Palace has been lying dormant and while it has skipped a number of generations, it has an uncanny knack of resurfacing.
Who knows, perhaps Lance and Potala Palace provided just the right confluence of genetic characteristics that provided the spark which ignites a fire.
