Dual Equus Awrd-winning photographer Candiese Lenferna has captured all the action this week
The BSA National Yearling Sale gets underway at 10h00 on Friday and the tension is mounting as breeders prepare to showcase the cream of the 2021 foal crop at a time of great economic uncertainty and a national electricity crisis.
On a more positive note, the quality for which the champion-making sale is renowned is best illustrated by the success of its graduates which have been setting the tracks alight in the last twelve months.
No less than 24 succeeded at Graded stakes level, and include a fine haul of six Gr1 winners.
Even more impressive, 16 of those cost R300,000 or less, a heartening fact in these difficult times and one which should boost buyers confidence.
Let’s take a look at some notable names on the list.
Take for example the 2019 sale, where Nick Jonsson snapped up multiple Champion Jet Dark for R200,000.
The son of Trippi ended a decorated career on a high in the Gr1 Cape Town Met, his fifth success at the highest level.
A five-time Equus champion and twice a winner of the L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate and Champions Cup, he has returned to birthplace Drakenstein Stud to embark on his second career as a stallion.
Suzette Viljoen’s fleet-footed amazon Captain’s Ransom, who pipped Jet Dark to Horse of the Year honours in 2022, cost just one bid more at R225,000 and added both the Gr1 SA Fillies Sprint and Gr1 Mercury Sprint to her already impressive haul over the past twelve months.
She too, has run her last race and retires to the paddocks with six Gr1 wins to her name. Wouldn’t it be fitting if her first suitor is Jet Dark?
Jet Dark’s paternal half-brother Trip To Fortune came with a heftier price tag, R750,000 to be exact.
He has fully vindicated that on the track and recently ventured outside homebase Cape Town to break through with a first Gr1 success in Turffontein’s H F Oppenheimer Horse Chestnut Stakes.
Cousin Casey (Pic – Chase Liebenberg)
Vercingetorix colt Cousin Casey was snapped up by trainer Glen Kotzen for R375,000 at the 2021 sale and made that look cheap when he walked away with Champion juvenile honours.
The colt capped a four-win streak with smashing victories in the Gr1 Premiers Champion Stakes and Gr2 Durban Golden Horseshoe and has since added classic Gr1 black type with a second in the Gr1 Cape Guineas.
Glen Kotzen has enjoyed early success with his juveniles in the Cape this Summer Season and won 2 out of the 3 legs of the Cape Summer Juvenile Series with two wonderful fillies, namely Rascova and Golden Tatjana, beating the colts.Their joint career earnings reaching just under a R1 Million in their first 3 months of their racing career.
Kotzen says that he is pleased to have a strong two-year-old string contending in both the Cape and Durban Winter Season and he is known as one of the top selectors of a quality horse at value.
“We are happy with the season and as we approach the BSA National Yearling Sale, the flagship sale in South Africa, and having seen the impressive draft, all credit to the breeders who put in years of preparation and planning to produce exceptional yearlings for auction,” added Glen.
Bless My Stars (Pic -JC Photos)
Gimmethegreenlight’s daughter Bless My Stars likewise did not break the bank with her R250,000 price tag.
Third in the Gr1 Thekwini Stakes as a juvenile, she sent her future broodmare value soaring with her victory in the Gr1 Wilgerbosdrift SA Fillies Classic.
Owner Willem Ackerman picked up arguably the biggest bargain of the 2020 sale when he outlaid R50,000 on the Flower Alley filly Gilded Butterfly.
She has since returned that nine-fold and is now a Gr3 winner of the Yellowwood Handicap. Such is the stuff that dreams are made of!
Gilded Butterfly – a good buy! (Pic – JC Photos)
Finishing a shorthead behind her must be the What A Winter filly Miss Cool.
She has made a mockery of her R60,000 price tag with victories in both the Gr2 SA Nursery (against males) and the Gr3 Three Troikas Stakes whilst her career earnings of over R550,000 far outstrip her purchase price.
Three-year-old Royal Victory showed what R90,000 can buy when winning the Gr3 Tony Ruffel Stakes, to go along with seconds in all of the Gr1 Premiers Champion Stakes, Gr2 Golden Horseshoe and Gr2 Gauteng Guineas.
Another relative bargain is Gr2 Camellia Stakes winner Winter Smoke, who cost just R150,000, while Gr3 Langerman winner Light Speed was a R175,000 purchase.
Winter Smoke – bargain buy (Pic-JC Photos)
Other graduates to have bolstered the sale’s profile in the past twelve months include former Horse of the Year and 2023 Hollywoodbets Durban July entry Do It Again, a winner of the Gr2 World Sports Betting 1900 at the ripe old age of seven who has earned close on R10-million; fellow seven-year-old Nexus (Gr2 Peninsula Handicap); Zapatillas (Gr2 World Sports Betting Guineas); Eye Of The Prophet (Gr2 Gauteng Guineas) and Billy Bowlegs (Gr3 Sea Cottage Stakes, 2nd Gr1 SA Derby).
Their achievements will ensure that any owner or trainer worth his salt will be searching for future champions at what is widely accepted as the holy grail of the South African sales programme.
