For the second consecutive year, a member of the fairer sex has walked away with the coveted SA Horse of the Year award.
Flower Alley’s daughter Princess Calla received the ultimate accolade at Emperor’s Palace on Wednesday evening, thereby emulating Captain’s Ransom success of a year ago.
Princess Calla – deserved acknowledgement (Pic – Candiese Lenferna)
She is also one of a remarkable quartet of females to lift the Horse of the Year trophy in the space of six years.
There is no denying that Mario Ferreira’s pride and joy has matured into an exceptional equine athlete at age five and full marks must go to trainer Sean Tarry, who mapped out her campaign with meticulous precision and clearly brought out the best in the mare.
The mark of a champion is the ability to win over a variety of distance and Princess Calla proved that in no uncertain terms with an exemplary Gr1 treble in the SA Fillies Sprint, the mile Garden Province Stakes and Champions Cup over 1800m.
Her stakes haul during the season also included the Gr2 Southern Cross Stakes, Gr2 Sceptre Stakes and Gr2 Senor Santa Stakes.
Dr Andreas Jacobs (photo: hamishNIVENPhotography)
Bred by Maine Chance Farms, she joins 2002 winner Free My Heart as the stud’s second Horse of the Year and is the latest in a fine array of champions to emerge from a female line made famous by the likes of the Jaffee-owned Petrava (the dam of Jallad and Hoeberg) and more recently, Princess Victoria.
Maine Chance boss Dr Andreas Jacobs travelled from Germany for his personal first Equus Horse Of The Year after 20 long seasons – a memorable moment!
As mentioned, Princess Calla follows in the footsteps of Captain’s Ransom, who clinched 2022 Horse of the Year honours by defeating a classy field of sprinters in the Mercury Sprint, her fourth Gr1 success of the season and sixth overall.
Captain’s Ransom – queen in 2022 (Pic – Chase Liebenberg)
Like Princess Calla, she displayed versatility at its finest, her Gr1 successes also ranging from 1200 to 1800m.
After a narrow win in the Gr1 Paddock Stakes over 1800m, she successfully defended her Gr1 Majorca Stakes title, returned five months later to lift the Gr1 SA Fillies Sprint before her crowning moment in the Mercury Sprint.
While Princess Calla is slated to stay in training, Captain’s Ransom has been retired and is scheduled for a date with fellow champion Jet Dark in the breeding shed.
Barely two years earlier in 2020, Silvano’s daughter Summer Pudding was crowned Horse of the Year at a once-off virtual Equus Awards ceremony during the dreaded Covid pandemic.
Summer Pudding (Pic – JC Photos)
Although she had yet to race in open company, the Wilgerbosdrift & Mauritzfontein homebred was nevertheless given the nod ahead of a number of exalted male candidates comprising fellow Equus award recipients Got The Greenlight (Champion 3yo and Middle Distance Male), Vardy (Champion Miler) and One World (Champion Older Male).
Also voted the Champion 3yo Filly, Summer Pudding’s credentials could not be faulted.
She took her connections on a heady journey and had yet to taste defeat in seven starts (one as a juvenile), which included the Triple Tiara as well as a powerful victory in the Gr1 Woolavington 2000.
History will show that she would go unbeaten in her first nine starts, which also included a polished victory in the Gr1 Summer Cup. Subsequently victorious in the Gr1 Empress Club Stakes, Summer Pudding was named Champion Older Filly/Mare at four and retired the winner of 11 of her 13 starts.
Oh Susanna (Pic – Chase Liebenberg)
It was Drakenstein homebred Oh Susanna who initiated the quartet of female Horse of the Year winners in 2018.
Bred in Australia, her finest effort came in the Gr1 Sun Met, where she downed an elite weight-for-age field and became the first three-year-old filly in over a century to win the Western Cape’s flagship race.
Drakenstein’s first Horse of the Year recipient, her victories in the Gr1 Paddock Stakes and Woolavington 2000 also guaranteed her of the Champion 3yo Filly and Champion Middle Distance Horse titles.
She was trained throughout her career by Justin Snaith, who described the daughter of Street Cry as “a tough and aggressive horse, the type you want to take on the boys with, because she’s got the right attitude”.
Igugu – ruled in 2011
Oh Susanna was preceded in 2011 by another Aussie-bred Horse of the Year, the brilliant filly Igugu, whose name is Zulu for ‘jewel’. Trained by Mike de Kock for the partnership of Sheikh Mohammed Bin Khalifa Al Maktoum and André and Joyce Macdonald, this daughter of Galileo certainly lived up to her name on the track.
A scintillating victory over the older male brigade in the Gr1 Durban July capped a remarkable sophomore campaign in which she also became the first winner of the Triple Tiara, which featured a ten-length rout of the Gr1 SA Fillies Classic and a powerful six-length romp in the Gr2 SA Oaks. Also successful in the Gr1 Woolavington 2000, she overcame an interrupted preparation to defeat Bravura and Gimmethegreenlight in the Gr1 J&B Met at four.
That was her seventh consecutive victory and pushed her earnings to R5,684,375, a new South African distaff record which stands to this day.
Clearly then, South African racing has been dominated by some exceptional female runners in recent years.
Princess Calla being the fourth female Horse of the Year in the past six years is solid proof that members of the fairer sex are more than capable of showing up their male rivals.
