Follow The Star’s fluent win in the Glenlair Trophy last Friday continued the stranglehold of the fairer sex on the Fairview race.
The Silvano mare, who already had the Listed East Cape Oaks on her resume, is the third consecutive female winner of the 2800m marathon won by the now Ridgemont Highlands-based Onesie in 2019, and in 2021 by Duke Of Marmalade’s daughter Miss Orange. The Covid pandemic put paid to the 2020 race.
Follow The Star wins the Glenlair Trophy (Pic – Pauline Herman)
Top female stayers are a neglected species in this country for the simple reason that our racing programme does not cater for stayers in general, and older female stayers in particular.
To the writer’s knowledge, the Gr3 Track and Ball Oaks and the Listed Spook Express and River Jetez Handicaps are the only black type races reserved for older staying fillies and mares, which leaves them no option but to take on their male counterparts.
Yet history shows that in recent years, a number of fillies and mares have proven more than capable of holding their own in the country’s top staying races. Let’s take a look.
On the far right Dean Kannemeyer and Glen Hatt enjoy Colonial Girl’s 2000 Gold Cup victory
Dean Kannemeyer-trained mare Colonial Girl rang in the new millenium with a career high victory in the 2000 Gr1 Gold Cup at Hollywoodbets Greyville, a feat which earned her an Equus award as the season’s Champion Female Stayer.
Nineteen years were to go by before another filly, the four-year-old Dynasty’s Blossom, landed the country’s premier staying race, in the process leading home a one-two for the late Dynasty.
Watch the Gold Cup history:
As a five-year-old, she also won the Gr3 Gold Vase, her victory coming a decade after Mike de Kock-trained Equiparada showed her male rivals a clean pair of heels in the 3000m race. Also third in the Gr2 SA Oaks, this Argentinian-bred out of a half-sister to the mighty Empress Club, Epoque and Ecurie, was sadly lost to our gene pool when sent to Australia for broodmare duties.
Another Champion Female Stayer, the New Zealand-bred Lady Of The Turf, became the first of three female winners of the two-mile Gold Bowl by defeating future dual Gr1 winner Young Rake in 2000.
Fourteen years later, Fort Wood’s daughter Magic Smoke landed the 3200m race, with third place going to the filly Rodeo Sioux, who as a broodmare would achieve fame as the dam of this season’s Gr1 SA Classic winner Red Saxon.
Sunshine Silk
Silvano’s daughter Sunshine Silk rounded out the trio when adding her name to the honour roll in 2019, this after winning the Gr3 Caradoc Gold Cup over 2850m. Trained by Geoff Woodruff for Ashley Devachander, she is the only female winner to complete the double.
Eight years earlier, SA Oaks victress Arcole landed the Caradoc in some style, coming home smoking to score by no less than four lengths. Her victory was no surprise since her female line oozes stamina. She is one of three Oaks winners produced by Star Of Arcole, who won up to 2500m, while grandam Arcole landed both the Natal Oaks and Gold Vase.
Drill Sargeant – top stayer
Arcola’s half-sister Princess Of Light, a daughter of sprinter Var, won the Natal Oaks, ran second in the Gr1 Gold Cup and third in the Gold Bowl and another sibling, Drill Sargeant, boasted a win, a second and a third in the Port Elizabeth Gold Cup over 3600m.
The Eastern Cape’s Champion Stayer of 2019, Onesie reserved her place in history as the only female to complete the Glenlair Trophy/Port Elizabeth Gold Cup double. She is also the last winner of South Africa’s longest race, as the distance was reduced to 3200m in 2020.
The J&B Reserve Stayers, a popular staying race which traditionally brings down the curtain on the Met meeting, has been won four times by fillies in recent times.
The first was Champion Female Stayer Almah, who ran out an easy winner in 2002.
An own sister to Caradoc Gold Cup winner Zambomba, this daughter of Al Mufti also placed in the Gold Vase, Caradoc Gold Cup and Gold Bowl and went on to score three times over the sticks in the UK.
Karl Neisius guides Ennion’s Sangria Girl to victory
Sangria Girl won the Reserve Stayers not once, but twice for Greg Ennion, claiming victory in 2009 and 2010.
Like Princess Of Light, she is somewhat of an anomaly, her sire being Al Mufti’s half-brother Wolfhound, a European champion sprinter.
The most recent female winner is Snapscan, who won the race in 2019, a daughter of the versatile Oratorio.
Snapscan – a daughter of Oratorio (Pic – Chase Liebenberg)
Finally, the prejudice by breeders against staying mares when they go to stud is all too well known and is primarily dictated by commercial considerations.
That is probably a discussion for another day, yet, off the top of my head, successful broodmares Exeter Chimes, Devon Air and Festive Forever all won the Gold Cup.
Furthermore, of those covered in this article, Colonial Girl has bred Gr3 winner and SA Oaks third Peggy Jay, while Arcola is the dam of Gr2 Fillies Guineas winner and Gr1-placed Fiorella as well as the multiple Zimbabwean stakes winner Verdier.
Almah’s Australian-bred daughter Sensible Lover found her way to South Africa and unlike her dam, showed plenty of zip to win the Gr3 Three Troika Stakes for Weiho Marwing, in addition to which she ran third in the Gr1 Empress Club Stakes.
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