Equus Outstanding Breeder for the 2018/19 season Drakenstein Stud’s first foal this year looks likely to have set the ‘gold standard’, in more ways than one.
Born on 2 August, the handsome young athlete is a first foal for the top farm’s new sire Gold Standard.
He is out of Looking At Stars (Philanthropist), a daughter of the former champion 3yo and Gr1 winning mare, Lady Windermere, who raced with such success for trainer Glen Kotzen.
In fact the Paarl-based Kotzen was also trainer of Gold Standard, the only son of Drakenstein Stud’s champion resident sire Trippi at stud in South Africa.
The new man, who has settled in like a professional, hails from a superb female line, with his dam Olympic Dam a daughter of two of South Africa’s greatest equine athletes – Model Man and Olympic Duel. The latter, dam of Gr1 Daily News 2000 winner Flying Duel and second dam of Equus Champion Thundering Star, won 12 races, with her seven Gr1 wins including all of the Gr1 J&B Met, Gr1 Champion Stakes and Gr1 Mainstay International.
Gold Standard on the racetrack (Pic – Chase Liebenberg)
Gold Standard ranked among the best horses of his generation as a 3yo, when he beat a high class field to win the Gr2 Selangor Cup.
He earned nearly R1 000 000 during his career and also finished second in the 2016 Gr1 Cape Guineas and a close fourth, behind older rivals, in the 2017 Gr1 Sun Met.
Breeders are invited to submit photos of their foal/s with a brief summary – birthdate, breeding, unique story etc to [email protected] for possible publication.
