The champagne corks were popping at the magnificent Owloon Horses in Paarl earlier this week when their 2024 Hollywoodbets Durban July winning broodmare Souk delivered a handsome and beautifully conformed Fire Away colt.
Delighted Stud Manager Alex de Wet told the Sporting Post on Thursday that the team were ‘over the moon’ and were delighted to have a beautiful colt, already named Charm Away, in their burgeoning equine arsenal.
The ball of fire was born on 13 October.
Charm Away is already leading the pack (Pic – Supplied)
“We are thrilled. He’s beautiful. Souk will visit Vercingetorix this season, so we are going back to the Oriental Charm Hollywoodbets Durban July winning well, as it were,” he added.
The stakes-placed Souk, a daughter of the Oppenheimer-owned and bred Greys Inn, was purchased in foal to Fire Away from Anton Shepherd in July. Her sire won the historic 2004 Durban July.
On plans for Charm Away, Alex explained that Owloon are commercial breeders and owe it to the market to offer the colt in the sales arena.
As previously reported by the Sporting Post, the stakes-placed Souk, a daughter of the Oppenheimer-owned and bred Greys Inn, who won the historic 2004 Durban July, is a product of the Mauritzfontein paddocks, and hails from a female line that has served SA racing’s most famous racing family well, originating from the purchase of the stakes winner, Daphne Donnelly.The latter was a sprinter and took after her sire Golden Thatch, as did her full sister, the Gr2 Sceptre Stakes winner Lady Broadhurst.
Daphne Donnelly’s dam was the American import You’re My Lady, a Roberto half-sister to Danehill’s dam Razyana, whilst their dam, the Buckpasser mare Spring Adieu, counted the mighty Northern Dancer amongst her siblings. In short, a female line to die for!
Daphne Donnelly was not the most prolific of broodmares and produced just five foals, all by Fort Wood. Four of those were fillies and all have become black-type producers.
Proud Mum Souk shows off her next Hollywoodbets Durban July winner (Pic – Supplied)
Souk is a grandaughter of Daphne Donnelly’s first foal Bay Tree, who returned to her birthplace as a two-time winner and when mated to Strike Smartly produced Gr1 SA Derby hero Bouquet-Garni as her second foal. Her first, a filly by the same sire named Tagine, never raced but became the dam of Souk.
Souk won three races and also earned small black type when second in the Listed Sweet Chestnut Stakes.
At the end of her racing career, she was sent to Cheveley Stud, where she produced the three-time winning fillies Athalia and Touch Of Grace as her first two foals.
While Oriental Charm’s July victory is the cherry on the cake, the family’s purple patch was preceded by stable companion Frances Ethel’s success in the Gr2 SA Oaks. The Mauritzfontein-bred daughter of Rafeef, who races in the Team Valor silks, is out of Daphne Garland, an unraced full sister to Bay Tree. Frances Ethel is a fancied contender in the R6 million Betway Gr1 Summer Cup next month.
