Flashback! Potala Palace gallops strongly to win the Joburg Spring Challenge in 2013
The 2013 Gr3 Joburg Spring Challenge winner Potala Palace and Highlands Farm’s beautifully bred new young sire Potala Palace recently covered his first, test mare, and performed well.
The handsome stallion clearly enjoys his new job, and lacks nothing in terms of enthusiasm.
A horse who has always turned heads, Potala Palace was a R3.6 million yearling purchase.
He more than lived up to his sales price by becoming a Grade 1 winner and leader of his generation.
Potala Palace, who won both the Gr1 Premier’s Champion Stakes and Gr3 Jo’Burg Spring Challenge, met and defeated some of the best racehorses in recent years.
Amongst those vanquished by Potala Palace were the Gr1 winners Gimmethegreenlight (L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate), Fighting Warrior (Golden Horseshoe), Master Plan (Champions Cup), Pomodoro (Vodacom Durban July), Wagner (Summer Cup), Heavy Metal (Vodacom Durban July), Pierre Jourdan (SA Classic), Link Man (Gold Medallion), Love Struck (SA Classic) ,Royal Bencher (SA Derby) and War Horse (Golden Horseshoe).
Potala Palace’s sire Singspiel (an In The Wings half-brother to Rakeen – sire of South Africa’s dominant champion sire Jet Master) was an outstanding racehorse and an equally outstanding stallion.
Eclipse Champion Turf Male of 1996, Singspiel won numerous top class races including the Dubai World Cup, Juddmonte International, Japan Cup and Coronation Cup.
Now deceased, Singspiel is the sire of 96 stakes winners, and his offspring have won over $82.8 million in stakes.
A remarkably versatile stallion, Singspiel has been represented by group winners ranging in distance from 1000m to 3200m, and his offspring have won major Grade/Group 1 races all around the world.
Amongst his best offspring are Moon Ballad (Dubai World Cup), Papineau (Gold Cup), Lahudood (Breeders Cup F&M Turf), Dar Re Mi (Yorkshire Oaks), Confidential Lady (French Oaks), and Eastern Anthem (Dubai Sheema Classic).
Potala Palace’s female line is equally illustrious. Out of a Group 3 placed daughter of leading sire Alzao, Potala Palace’s second dam, Scots Lass, is a half-sister to the Group 1 winner Sought Out – dam of Epsom Derby winner North Light. Another half-sister to Scots Lass is Greektown – the dam of Group 1 Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud winner Gamut. This is the immediate family of 2014 Investec Oaks runner up Tarfasha.
Potala Palace is a direct descendant of Simon’s Shoes – the ancestress of such legendary stallions as Sadler’s Wells, Fairy King, and Nureyev.
He shares line breeding to Simon’s Shoes with the likes of local Gr1 winners Legislate, Big City Life and Futura, and Potala Palace clearly lacks nothing for pedigree.
