Kommetdieding’s fine victory in the WSB Gr1 Cape Town Met proved a rare occasion in more than one respect, for while Michelle Rix made history as the first woman to train a Met winner, the son of Elusive Fort is also the first Durban July winner in a decade to complete the coveted double!
In fact, Kommetdieding’s biography reads like a novel, right from the start.
Cape star Kommetdieding enjoys the Lerena stamp of approval (Pic – Chase Liebenberg)
Had owner Peter de Beyer not returned his champion Elusive Fort to South Africa, we would have been deprived of this exceptional galloper.
A champion and triple Gr1 winner in South Africa under the expert tutelage of champion trainer Geoff Woodruff, the son of Fort Wood was exported to the States at the end of his four-year-old season to continue has racing career. Based in Florida, his best effort amongst a handful of starts was a second in Gulfstream Park’s Gr3 Appleton Handicap.
Elusive Fort seen winning his 3rd Gr1
Sadly, by the time Elusive Fort returned to South Africa to embark on a stud career at the now defunct Arc-En-Ciel Stud, his outstanding local racing career had become a fading memory, with the result that he received scant support from local breeders.
Despite the lack of patronage, the handsome bay quickly showed he had what it takes when siring Gr1 winning fillies Siren’s Call and Lauderdale in his first two crops. SA Oaks winner Secret Potion followed, while Kommetdieding and Gr1 SA Derby hero Out Of Your League became his next two Gr1 winners.
More important though, Elusive Fort joined the elite ranks of stallions last season when he finished seventh on the General List and now holds court at his owner’s Black Swan Stud near Robertson.
Kommetdieding’s female line traces to Varsfontein Stud import Riding Light. A daughter of Top Ville, she raced in France for Mrs Kalmanson, winning twice as a three-year-old before arriving in South Africa, where she scored once more before making the Varsfontein paddocks her home.
Carl de Vos
Stud manager Carl de Vos remembers her well and recalls: “Riding Light was a lightish mare and difficult to work with. We sent her to Riverton Stud to visit Russian Fox. Needless to say, Duncan Barry told me she kicked the stallion, but they managed to get her covered. She came back to the farm and was checked by the vet, who maintained she was not in foal. We left her alone and when the next breeding season came along, we checked her again and would you believe it, she was pregnant after all! Because she had been fed like a barren mare, she gave birth to a very small filly. That was Dacha, who we sold at the then Goodwood Yearling sale for R3000!”
Despite her size, Dacha showed she could run by winning the Prix du Cap and finishing second in the Gr3 Diana and third in the Gr2 Western Cape Fillies Championship.
Barbara Sanna purchased Dacha at the end of her racing career and she retired to Oldlands Stud, where, despite her size, she proved quite prolific, producing 11 foals. Nine of those became winners and included a trio of black type performers, amongst which the Captain Al filly Adorable, who would become the dam of Kommetdieding.
Barbara Sanne
Sold at the National Yearling Sale for R400 000, she was trained by Charles Laird and scored three times, in addition to which she chased home triple Gr2 winner Gibraltar Blue in the Listed Gardenia Handicap. She eventually joined the Klawervlei broodmare band and had produced just two winners by the time Kommetdieding was a three-year-old. The colt had been sold off the farm for a trifling R55 000 and after foaling to Twice Over, she was on the list of mares to be culled.
Once again, fate stepped in. As Barbara elaborates: “We saw Adorable was offered online. I think ours was the only bid and we got her back for R8000! She was in foal to first-season sire Gold Standard and produced a colt which we have named New Standard. By then Kommetdieding was a stakes winner, so we sent her back to Elusive Fort and she foaled his own sister this past spring.”
So the wheel has come full circle.
Adorable is once again roaming the Oldlands paddocks and needless to say, is carrying a full sibling to the Durban July/Met winner!
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