For avid followers of British racing, May is an especially important month, as it marks the build-up to the Epsom Derby, a time when three-year-olds come out of the woodwork to lay claim to a berth in the famous Classic.
Interestingly, the current market leaders are two colts whose families can be found at the most southern tip of Africa.
As has become the norm, Ireland’s powerful Ballydoyle stable boasts a veritable arsenal of Derby prospects.
Luxembourg was the winter favourite to give Aidan O’Brien an unprecedented ninth English Derby win until a muscle injury sent him to the sidelines.
Epsom Derby fancy Stone Age – SA family links (Pic – Caroline Norris)
No worries though, O’Brien immediately had a ready replacement in Stone Age, who became the new Derby favourite following a runaway victory in the Gr3 Derby Trial Stakes at Leopardstown just over a week ago.
The colt is a son of O’Brien’s first Derby winner, the mighty Galileo (who else) and hails from the same female line as Drakenstein Stud’s venerable broodmare Buffalo Dance.
By Sadler’s Wells out of Gr1-placed, multiple French Gr2 winner Bright Moon, this Irish-bred showed little on the track, as did her half-sister, the modest winner Bonanza Creek, who features as the dam of Stone Age.
However, the pair’s siblings include a host of stakes winners, amongst which the champion and French Oaks winner Bright Sky and Bonanza Creek’s Gr1-placed own sister Board Meeting, who produced the Gr1-placed stakes winner Big Blue to Galileo.
Since her arrival in 2001, Buffalo Dance has established her own dynasty at Drakenstein.
All in the family! Hollywoodbets Durban July entry Hoedspruit (Pic – Chase Liebenberg)
Her progeny include Gr2 Betting World Oaks and Gold Bracelet third Shingwedzi and East Coast Handicap runner-up Barberton Daisy, who is already dam of Perfect Promise Sprint victress Lesedi La Rona and East Cape Oaks winner Swazi Queen. Buffalo Dance is also grandam of Gr2 Premier Trophy winner and Hollywoodbets Durban July entry Hoedspruit, and the champion Zimbabwean filly Raven Girl.
Many of her daughters and grandaughters now roam the stud’s paddocks and not surprisingly, owner Gaynor Rupert is looking forward to the Derby with keen interest.
“I have a lot of the family and this brings them all alive again. It’s going to make the Derby so much more exciting for me,”she remarked.
However, Stone Age has been relegated to second favourite by Sir Michael Stoute-trained Desert Crown, who will bid to become his veteran trainer’s sixth Derby winner.
By Galileo’s champion son Nathaniel, he made an auspicious start to his career when disposing of his rivals by five and half- lengths on debut in November.
The colt returned to action at last week’s York meeting where he lived up to his lofty reputation by landing the Gr2 Dante Stakes with utter authority.
Commenting on his colt’s Derby chances, Stoute remarked at the time: “I think he has to go there with a very strong chance. He is a beautifully balanced horse.”
Out of a Green Desert mare, the colt hails from a family nurtured at another famous stud, Juddmonte Farms. His grandam Foreign Language is a half-sister to the successful Juddmonte broodmare Binche, the dam of champion French miler Byword, who, during his brief spell as a stallion in South Africa, sired Gr1 Empress Club victress Camphoratus.
Also dam of multiple Gr1 winner Proviso, Binche recently produced a fourth stakes winner when her Frankel son Baratti won Longchamp’s Listed Prix Lord Seymour in the Juddmonte silks.
Those silks were also carried by Stoute’s most recent Derby winner Workforce, who claimed the blue riband in 2010.
Desert Crown on the other hand, races in the same Saeed Suhail colours of Stoute’s 2003 winner Kris Kin.
This year’s Cazoo Derby will be contested on Saturday, June 4.
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