Like the tide, the fortunes of many thoroughbred female families tend to ebb and flow.
Take last weekend’s Syringa Sprint winner Mia Moo, who, together with close relative Pomodoro’s Jet, has revived a fine family which has given us some really outstanding gallopers over the past five decades.
Christophe Soumillon and Shea Shea showcase the SA flag at Meydan – dreams for a repeat with Isivunguvungu on 5 April? (Pic – Supplied)
The female line goes back to Daddy’s Girl, a stakes winning daughter of the short-lived Prized. By Prince Chevalier out of the celebrated broodmare Bride Elect, he stood just three seasons at Highlands before succumbing to gastroenteritis at the age of seven, a huge loss, given that he also sired the stakes winners The Mask and Iron King.
However, it is as a broodmare sire that he made his mark, for in that sphere, his daughters produced a host of stakes winners, notably Gr1 Cape Derby hero King Charles and the crack sprinter Zatopek.
In addition, he features prominently in the bottom lines of the Met hero and four-times Gr1 winner Pas De Quo and Durban July hero Classic Flag.
Daddy’s Girl was a fine advert for her sire and excelled over the minimum trip, winning eight races from two to four, which included the Listed Nautical Week Handicap.
As a broodmare, she boasted a perfect score card with eight winners from as many runners, pride of place going to her Preamble II colt Fly By Night.
The late Colin Palm trained Fly By Night for the Ovenstones (Pic – Supplied)
Trained by Colin Palm for the Ovenstones, the colt won the Langerman at two and at three romped home by six lengths in the Green Point Stakes before finishing a gallant third to Politician and Big Swinger in a pulsating three-way finish to the Gr1 Cape Guineas.
To the Canadian-bred stallion Rouletabille, Daddy’s Girl produced three-time winning filly Moppet, who was bred to champion sprinter Harry Hotspur and produced the National Sprint and Natal Free Handicap winner Empire Ruler.
Moppet also visited Prized’s half-brother Royal Prerogative, which yielded the filly Queen’s Favourite, who was destined to become the fourth dam of Mia Moo and Pomodoro’s Jet.
Fourth in the Gr2 Golden Slipper at two, Queen’s Favourite eventually retired to the paddocks with six wins in tow and became a Gr1 producer, courtesy of her Foveros son Fov’s Favourite.
The late Buddy Maroun trained champion Fov’s Favourite for Andre McDonald (Pic – Supplied)
Trained by the late Buddy Maroun, this grand sprinter carried Andre and Joyce MacDonald’s silks with distinction in a career spanning seven seasons.
He first struck at the highest level when defeating his equally talented stable companion and Gr1 winner All Is Well in the Mondi Sprint.
The gelding reached the ultimate peak of his powers at age five with a second Mondi Sprint success, this on the heels of a facile victory over top sprint filly Ruby Clipper in the Gr1 Computaform Sprint.
Remarkably durable, he showed that he still had what it takes at age eight when third in a head-bobbing finish to the Gr3 Joburg Sprint.
It was Fov Favourite’s Northfields half-sister Georgie Gorgeous who would provide the family’s next star galloper through her Jallad daughter, the Ladies Mile winner Yankee Clipper, whose accomplishments on the racetrack paled into comparison to her deeds as a broodmare.
She became the dam of yet another grand sprinter in the shape of Shea Shea.
Bred by Klawervlei Stud and trained by Geoff Woodruff, the son of National Emblem captured the Gr1 Golden Horseshoe at three and notched up a second Gr1 success at four when he ran his rivals off their feet in the Gr1 Computaform Sprint, never letting up to score from Magico and What A Winter.
As successful as he was locally, he really came into his own on the international stage. Transferred to Mike de Kock’s Dubai stables, he won the Listed Meydan Sprint in a new record time, thereby casting himself as the one to beat in the Gr1 Al Quoz Sprint on World Cup night.
The five-year-old didn’t disappoint. Sent off the shortest-priced favourite on the card, he proceeded to burn off his rivals with a strong display of speed and ended up smashing his own track record set in the Meydan Sprint.
Jwala keeps up the gallop to beat Shea Shea (yellow cap) and Sole Power in the King’s Stand Stakes (Pic – Supplied)
Royal Ascot’s Gr1 King’s Stand Stakes was also on the agenda, and again Shea Shea acquitted himself with aplomb.
Backed down to favourite, Brian Joffe and Myron Berzack’s star sprinter looked set for an historical and elusive first South African victory inside the final furlong, but in the end, was beaten in the last stride and went down by a neck. He is further proof that speed runs like a golden thread through this female line.
Enter Yankee Clipper’s half-sister Budding Beauty. By American-bred Lambent Light, she was versatility personified, winning four times from 1000 to 2000m. She too, returned to birthplace Klawervlei and produced as her first two foals, fillies by Captain Al.
The first, Gorgeous Al, managed just two places, whereas younger sibling Leeward became her dam’s first and only stakes winner when she claimed the Listed Irridescence Stakes as a late juvenile.
Pomodoro’s Jet – consistent galloper (Pic – JC Photos)
Both returned to Klawervlei for broodmare duties where Gorgeous Al struck first as the dam of the Crawford-trained Pomodoro’s Jet, who, by the time he made his Highveld debut in the Gr3 Jubilee Stakes in June, already boasted five wins.
He has since gone from strength to strength and in January added yet another piece of silverware to Khaya Stables’ display cabinet with a maiden stakes success in the Listed Wolf Power 1600. Maturity has clearly brought out the best in the six-year-old, whose gritty victory back over 1400m rounded out a fine hat-trick of wins.
Leeward too, is now a stakes producer as the dam of Sean Tarry’s Mia Moo, who took the Gr3 Sycamore Sprint thirty minutes later.
Already Gr3-placed – she had finished second in the Umzimkhulu Stakes and third in this season’s Mother Russia Stakes, the daughter of champion stallion elect Vercingetorix was finally rewarded with full black type in her first run back home after the Cape summer season, where she had finished fourth in both the Gr3 Prix du Cap and Listed Olympic Duel Stakes.
