The outcome of the Wilgerbosdrift Gr1 SA Fillies Classic did not go according to script. Unbeaten Spumante Dolce, an impressive winner of the Gr2 Gauteng Fillies Guineas, started a warm favourite to add the second leg of the Triple Tiara, but ran way below expectations and trailed in 13 lengths behind the winner.
Fiery Pegasus skates home under Richard Fourie (Pic – Candiese Lenferna)
There were valid excuses for her disappointing effort though. Coupled with the rain-softened going, a post-race examination revealed significant mucus in her trachea.
Let’s take nothing away from the winner Fiery Pegasus! She gave her rivals the slip in mid-stretch to bolt up by almost five lengths.
It was the first stakes success for the Joey Soma-trained filly and a fully deserved one at that, given that she had gone down by the proverbial whisker in the Gr2 Joburg Spring Fillies & Mares Challenge and had run a promising fourth in the Gr2 Gauteng Fillies Guineas.
Fiery Pegasus joins Cape Derby hero Linebacker as the second top level winner sired by champion sprinter Captain Of All and hails from a female family which had its origins at the famed Zandvliet Stud.
Zandvliet’s ffirst Met winner, Peter Beware
Revered for its fine wines and excellent racehorses, Zandvliet owner Paul de Wet built his broodmare band around a band of imported mares from families of world renown. He purchased the English-bred Molvedo mare Molfetta in 1969, and as a half-sister to leading English sire Great Nephew, out of the Queen Mary winner and Coronation Stakes second Sybil’s Niece, she exemplified that policy to a tee.
Molfetta lived up to her celebrated bloodlines and proved a prolific mare to boot, producing no less than 14 foals, of which ten became winners, prime amongst which the stakes winners Termoli, Bari, Mayfair and Daddy’s Own, who just happens to be the third dam of Fiery Pegasus.
Molfetta became a stakes producer with her second foal Bari. A son of Zandvliet’s ace stallion Noble Chieftain, he proved himself a stayer of note, winning the Len Harvey Memorial Handicap.
Next up was his year-younger half-sister Termoli. This daughter of New South Wales showed her best form on the opposite side of the stamina spectrum, winning both the Gr2 Argus Festival Nursery and Gr2 Southern Cross Stakes.
Zandvliet’s late Dan de Wet – master breeder (Pic – Supplied)
Mayfair, by the Forli horse Folmar, twice won the Nomads and became one of his dam’s two Gr1 performers when third in the Germiston 100, the other being Plum Bold half-brother Brubaker, who chased home Charles Fortune in the Gr1 Cape Derby.
Which brings us to Daddy’s Own. Successful in the Juvenile Free Handicap and runner-up in the Langerman, she was from the sole crop of Irish 2000 Guineas third Dapper, who stood at Zandvliet before his untimely death. A son of the mighty Forli, his loss was keenly felt, considering he also sired T R Lewis Memorial victress Corn, ancestress of Gr1 winner Irish Flame, as well as the stakes winners Cornglow, Flaming Corn and Vertical Takeoff.
Daddy’s Own duly retired to Zandvliet, where she proved as prolific a broodmare as her dam, producing 13 foals.
Whilst the stakes-placed geldings Castlewood, Dad’s Army and Master Magnum headed her ten winners, her legacy continues through her daughters and grandaughters. Her descendants include Gr1 Cape Flying Championship victress Nobely Born, multiple Gr3 winner Trip Tease, as well the likes of Dame D’Or, Legally Blonde and Dance Variety.
Daddy Own’s three-time winning daughter Run For Daddy, by Damascus Gate features as the third dam of Fiery Pegasus.
Fiery Pegasus’ brother Shango wins the Lonsdale in 2022 under Richard Fourie (Pic – Candiese Lenferna)
By the time Run For Daddy returned to Zandvliet, the stud had passed into the care of Paul de Wet’s son Dan who was a great fan of champion Jet Master and faithfully sent him four mares from the start. Run To Daddy featured amongst the imposing champion’s first book of mares (as did a certain mare by the name of Stormsvlei), the resultant foal of that mating a filly named Scorched, who would go on to score four times on the track.
When Zandvliet was sold in 2015, Scorched had already produced four winners from her first five foals. Dan continued breeding on a modest scale under the Heritage Stud banner, having retained Scorched. Her Captain Al colt Captain And Master became her first stakes performed foal, reaching the frame in all of the Gr2 Durban Golden Horseshoe, Gr2 Merchants and Gr3 Jubilee Handicap.
Captain Al’s covering fee had by then risen into six figures, which no doubt prompted Dan to send Scorched to the next best thing, his champion son Captain Of All, who had just joined his sire at Klawervlei Stud.
The resultant colt foal, named Shango, won the Gr2 Dingaans before running second in the Gr1 SA Derby. Trained by Sean Tarry, he would show his class over ground, winning both the Gr3 Hollywoodbets 2200 and Gr3 Lonsdale Stirrup Cup.
Hemel ‘N Aarde Stud master David Hepburn-Brown had acquired Scorched when Shango was strutting his stuff on the racetrack, and he repeated what looked like a winning recipe by sending the mare to Captain Of All in 2020. In early November of 2021, she gave birth to Fiery Pegasus.
Incidentally, David bred the filly in partnership with Greenacres Trust’s Marsh Shirtliff, whose links to Zandvliet are tangible as co-owner of the legendary Pocket Power, Jet Master’s first-crop foal out of Stormsvlei. Undoubtedly Dan de Wet’s greatest breeding achievement, the strapping bay was arguably the finest horse to emerge from the Zandvliet paddocks.
Sadly, Marsh confirmed that Fiery Pegasus was Scorched’s last foal, the mare having passed on in 2023.
He is philosophical about the fact that the newly-minted Gr1 winner was sold as a yearling and added: “I bet David will now be looking for the What A Winter daughters Scorched produced before Fiery Pegasus came along!”
