Warrior’s dashing victory in the Gr3 Variety Club Mile, his third on the bounce, confirmed he’s a young horse going places. Raced by an international partnership, the Ridgemont Highlands-bred is also the second stakes winner in the space of a week for his young sire Futura.
Warrior is led in after his good win (Pic- Chase Liebenberg)
A son of Dynasty, Futura entered stud at Drakenstein boasting a combination of looks, pedigree and race record that gave him a license to be any kind of sire.
He had emulated his sire as a Horse of the Year recipient, his four Gr1 successes included the coveted Met/Queen’s Plate double and he had banked over R4,3-million in a career spanning three seasons.
As regards pedigree, Futura’s dam is the juvenile winner Scribblin’ The Cat, a daughter of Badger’s Drift, who garnered the classic Gr1 treble of the SA Derby, SA Classic and Daily News 2000. He was by champion sire Badger Land out of Broodmare of the Year, On The Roof, a daughter of Thatching.
Scribblin’ The Cat’s grandam Winter Fox ran second in the SA Fillies Nursery and was a daughter of champion Western Winter and Fox Of Gold, who was sired by Thatching’s own brother, the high-class Golden Thatch.
Scribblin’ The Cat therefore carries a duplication of the full brothers, who are inbred to the fabulous taproot mare Dalmary, ancestress of both their sire Thatch and dam Abella, not to mention Sadler’s Wells, the grandsire of Dynasty.
Futura made a fruitful start to his stallion career with a stakes winner amongst seven juvenile winners, quite an accomplishment for a horse who was unraced at two.
Futura in the paddock
The Corné Spies-trained Nourbese became his first stakes winner when landing the Gr2 Golden Horseshoe barely two weeks after cracking his maiden at Turffontein. He followed up with a fine second in the Gr1 Premier’s Champion Stakes before his export to Saudi Arabia. That failed to come to fruition and he will continue his career from Ricky Maingard’s Mauritius stable.
He is the first living foal out of Golden Pathway (Victory Moon) while his grandam Golden Falcon is a daughter of Golden Thatch, thus reinforcing the Dalmary influence.
Warrior’s stakes success followed a week after paternal half-brother Diesel And Dust’s score in the Zimbabwe 2000, a race which proved a triumph for Futura, with third place going to his stakes winning daughter Dindingwe. Unbeaten in two starts, the winner had made a strong impression with a smart four-length debut win over 1700m in late February.
Remarkably, both were produced by daughters of former Highlands champ Jallad, a son of Blushing Groom. It so happens that Abriyna, the grandam of Badger’s Drift, is a three-part sister to Blushing Groom! Diesel and Dust’s dam Jalinga, hails from a solid Argentinian female line.
Futura in racing action
Dindingwe, a six-time winner, has yet to finish out of the first three in eight starts and defeated male rivals in the Zimbabwe Guineas. Out of Jallad’s daughter Miss Delish, her success has not gone unnoticed and her yearling full brother was recently snapped up for R300 000 by bloodstock agent John Freeman at the National Sale.
Freeman also purchased Futura’s highest-priced lot at the Nationals, giving R600 000 for a Drakenstein-bred colt out of a Trippi mare. Standing alongside the champion at Drakenstein Stud, it was always a given that Futura would have access to his daughters and he features as the broodmare sire of Futura’s fleet-footed daughter Sweet Future, who carried the Drakenstein silks to victory in the Listed Bauhinia Handicap.
That brings us to Warrior’s pedigree.
He is a three-part brother in blood to the talented filly Pretty Young Thing, who is by another son of Dynasty, the Highlands-based Jackson.
A dual Gr3 winner of the Poinsettia Stakes and Prix du Cap, she also placed at Gr1 level when third in the Garden Province Stakes. The duo’s dam, the Listed Swallow Stakes winner Nona In Command, is a granddaughter of Danehill, while third dam Rainscene was sired by Scenic, a son of Sadler’s Wells.
Significantly, Nona In Command hails from the same female line and is bred on similar lines to Sabine Plattner’s dual champion sprinter Laisserfaire. By Danehill she is a grandaughter of Reigntaine, who also features as the third dam of Nona In Command.
Warrior is clearly on an upward curve and notwithstanding his speed-laden female line, his strong finish in the Variety Club suggests the 1800m of the Gr.3 Legal Eagle Stakes on May 22 could be within his scope.
With two new stakes winners in the space of a week, Futura continues to bolster his standing amongst the leading second-crop stallions.
His place as a young sire to note will no doubt gather pace throughout the remainder of the season.
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