Seldom, if ever, does a racehorse successfully return from a serious suspensory injury, so hats off to trainer Vaughan Marshall and the connections of Rascallion, following the gelding’s game victory in the Gr2 Anthonij Rupert Wyne Premier Trophy.
The son of Vercingetorix got the monkey off his back with this overdue first stakes success, which was richly deserved, considering he has always been on the cusp of stakes class.
Corne Orffer keeps Rascallion at it to beat Piere Strydom and Nexus (Pic – Chase Liebenberg)
He first caught the eye as a juvenile when third behind Erik The Red in the Gr3 Cape of Good Hope Nursery. A sophomore season brought with it a string of stakes places and earned him the tag of ‘Gr1 bridesmaid’, as he had to settle for second behind Linebacker in both the Gr1 Cape Derby and Gr1 Daily News 2000.
Mixing it with the best of his generation, his many commendable efforts in defeat also included third places behind Russian Rock in the Gr1 Cape Guineas, Gr2 Concorde Stakes (to Malmoos), Gr3 Cape Classic (to Seeking The Stars ) and Gr3 Politician Stakes (to Kommetdieding).
He signed off on the season with a close-up fifth behind Kommetdieding in the Gr1 Vodacom Durban July, a fine run considering he finished just over two lengths adrift of the winner.
Following a well-deserved rest, Rascallion made his four-year-old bow in November in the Cape Mile where only Warrior proved his superior, while Kommetdieding took third place.
A month later, he provided a roller-coaster of emotions by defeating Horse of the Year Do It Again at level weights over 1800m, only to pull up after the wire with an injured suspensory ligament.
After a cracking ride, Corne Orffer dismounts (Pic – Chase Liebenberg)
That victory came at a huge cost, as the injury was severe enough to be considered career-ending and it took considerable patience and skill by trainer Vaughan Marshall to restore Rascallion to full health.
He recalls: “Rascallion had to be box-rested and we treated him intensively, using the tendon magnet boot, heat and ice, the lot. Thankfully he’s a very good-natured horse and took it all in his stride.”
By August, there was light at the end of the tunnel.
“We were always positive and when I got back from Durban, we knew he could go back into work.”
Off the track for eleven months, Rascallion returned to action in the Cape Mile, where he ran an eye-catching fourth behind Jet Dark and was certainly not disgraced in last month’s Gr2 Green Point Stakes when finishing three and a half lengths off the winner Trip Of Fortune.
Finally, on Saturday, all the effort and patience paid off and yes, Vaughan confirmed the horse pulled up 100% sound. The bar will be raised once more, for the WSB Gr1 Cape Met is firmly on the radar.
From a pedigree perspective, Rascallion is out of Sofala,who incidentally, is bred on the same Jet Master x Al Mufti cross as champion Yorker and Gr1 winner Little Miss Magic. While Sofala may not have been in that exalted league, she proved to be an honest galloper, winning six races at three and four.
Rascallion is the latest stakes winner out of a Jet Master mare. The champion may be long gone, yet continues to make an impact and stamped his authority on the race as the broodmare sire of not just Rascallion, but also of runner-up Nexus and fourth-placed Universal.
Adding further gloss to the day, his daughters produced Gr2 Sceptre Stakes runner-up Stiptelik, as well as Jet Dark and Silver Darling, third place finishers in the Gr1 L’Ormarins King’s Plate and Gr1 Cartier Paddock Stakes respectively.
Suffice to say, a catalogue page does not always reflect the true worth of a pedigree and while Rascallion hails from a family that is rather light on black type under the first three dams, it is built on solid, classic foundations.
Fourth dam Patronage won Epsom’s Listed Great Surrey Foal Stakes as a juvenile. She is out of Springtime, who besides being a half-sister to English Derby/Two Thousand Guineas winner Blue Peter, also counts amongst her descendants the English Derby winning half-brothers Blakeney and Morston.
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