Politicians, Models And Lovely Ladies

After the final field announcement on Wednesday evening, the countdown has begun to one of the crown jewels on the South African racing calendar, the Gr1 World Sports Betting Cape Town Met.

Contested over 2000m, this time-honoured race rates as the undisputed highlight of the Cape Summer season and, as history shows, continues to exert its influence on the breeding and racing industry.

Pocket Power connections celebrate in 2010 (Pic – Supplied)

To substantiate this claim and for the purpose of this article, let’s delve into the archives and go back to the seventies, which for many, represented the ‘golden age’ of South African racing.

In 1975, the Met belonged to smashing New Zealand import Sledgehammer, the champion three-year-old of his generation and Horse of the Year in 1974.

Raced by ‘beef baron’ Cyril Hurvitz, this handsome chestnut became a successful, if not great, stallion, siring the Gr1 winners Dambuster, Sandfly and Hammer Belle.

The broodmare sire of Gr1 Summer Cup winner Tyson, he also appears in the pedigrees of Gr1 SA Derby winner Son Of Raj and his equally talented own brother Arumugam.

Sledgehammer was denied the double in 1976, when he had to bow to Herman Brown-trained Gatecrasher. The big chestnut likewise earned himself a place at stud and from far less opportunity, sired the Gr1 winning sprinter Welcome Guest, as well as Underground Lady, a stakes winning half-sister to 1997 Met winner London News.

She produced Gr1 winner Lady Brompton, whose champion son Kings Gambit completed the Gr1 SA Classic/SA Derby double before becoming a Gr3 winner in Britain.

Another of Gatecrasher’s daughters Quick Succession produced Gr1 SA Guineas winner Heir Apparent and also features as the grandam of Gr1 Klawervlei Majorca Stakes victress Nightingale and Gr1 Wilgerbosdrift SA Fillies Classic winner Athina.

Anthony Delpech keeps Imperious Sue at her game to hold off Piere Strydom and North By Northwest in 1998 (Pic – Supplied)

Three times Horse of the Year, and a dual Met winner, Politician is widely regarded as the finest galloper of the seventies. A winner of 11 Gr1 races, his second Met victory in 1979 proved one for the ages, as he came from a hopeless position in the straight to nab the gallant Festive Season on the line. Exhilarating stuff.

Although he never emulated himself as a stallion – to be honest, very few champions ever do – he sired numerous stakes winners over a wide variety of distances, from the all-conquering sprinter Signor Amigo and fleet-footed Izindaba, to SA Oaks winner Seven Stars and stakes winning stayers Wise Crack and Dare To Command. As a broodmare sire, he is responsible for dual Gr1 winner Duchess Daba and also features in the pedigree of 2014 Met winner Hill Fifty Four.

Then there was Foveros. In a season which saw him crowned the Horse of the Year, the English import put together a rousing five-win streak capped by the 1982 Met.

Foveros

At stud, the son of Averof went on to cement his place in the pantheon of stallion greats, leading the General Sires list on nine occasions, eight of which consecutively. His Gr1 winners include elite names such as Aquanaut, Miss Averof, Simonside, Singing Boy, Teal, Shah’s Star and Festive Forever.

Although he failed to establish a sire line of his own, Foveros did excel as a broodmare sire, topping the list in 2001. His daughters produced three Gr1 Summer Cup winners in Ingleside, Wolf Whistle and Malteme, the champions Special Parade, Thundering Star and Fearless, classic winners Floatyourboat, Arcola, Ash Cloud, Sally Bowles and Prince Asad, the dual Gold Cup winner Highland Night and Gr1 winning sprinter Warm White Night. Truly a stallion for all seasons!

Trainer Ricky Maingard, who has two runners in the 2024 renewal,  will forever be associated with the magnificent miler Wolf Power, who claimed a hot renewal of the 1984 Met at the expense of the exceptional imports Spanish Pool and Devon Air.

A Gr1 winner at two, this Birch-bred grey matured into a dominant force as a four-year-old, set two South African record times, five track records and won eight times at Gr1 level.

Exported to the States, the 1984 Horse of the Year spent the latter part of his stallion career at the venerable Gainesway Farm in Kentucky and while he proved himself a solid, if not spectacular sire, he became a factor for toughness and resilience in a pedigree.

Wolf Power canters to post for the 1984 Met (Pic – Supplied)

That said, he reserved his place in history as the damsire of dual American Horse of the Year Wise Dan. It would be remiss not to mention his South African-bred daughter Wild Wolverine, who became grandam of Gr1 SA Classic winner Lobo’s Legend.

Model Man, who claimed the scalp of champion Enchanted Garden in the 1987 Met, likewise earned Horse of the Year honours. At stud, he went on to buck the trend at a time when locally-bred stallions were eschewed by breeders, siring a slew of Gr1 winners, amongst which Special Preview, Amberpondo, Glamour Boy, Eddington and the fillies Fair Model, Model School, League Title and Private Reserve.

Equally as successful a broodmare sire, his daughters produced the Gr1 winners National Spirit, Along Came Polly and Pointing North.

The final decade of the twentieth century gave us two more legends of the turf, London News and Horse Chestnut.

The former, who carried the famous Jaffee silks to Met victory in 1997, returned to his birth country following a trailblazing victory in Hong Kong’s Queen Elizabeth II Cup and a third in the Gr1 Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot.

The son of Bush Telegraph put together a solid innings as a stallion, and while he failed to sire that all-important Gr1 winner, he became broodmare sire of Gr1 Gold Challenge winner Undercover Agent.

By the way, he features as the sire of the grandam of this year’s Met hopeful Montien.

The twentieth century ended on a high when Harry and Bridget Oppenheimer’s champion Horse Chestnut swept to a majestic victory in the 1999 Met, his winning margin of 8.25 lengths underlining his absolute superiority.

Horse Chestnut wins the 1999 J&B Met (Pic – Supplied)

A winner of his sole American start, he retired to the famed Claiborne Farm in Kentucky, where he stood nine seasons. That he was a foreign-bred, and a grass galloper to boot, outweighed his credentials at a time when American breeders looked askance at turf horses and with just one Gr1 winner to his credit, he returned to his birth country, where he added another two Gr1 winners to his tally.

Truth be told, he has had a far more profound impact as a broodmare sire, and on three continents no less!

Damsire of six American Gr1 winners, he also features as the broodmare sire of Gr1 Irish Oaks and Gr1 Prix Vermeille victress Star Catcher, who incidentally, was bred by the Oppenheimers’ cousin, Antony.

It is entirely fitting that Horse Chestnut is also broodmare sire of a Met winner, this the Ideal World filly Smart Call, who dusted off a vintage field of male rivals to claim the 2016 race by over three lengths.

And like Horse Chestnut, she is a product of the famed Mauritzfontein paddocks and won in the same Oppenheimer silks.

Smart Call wins in 2016 – JP van der Merwe rides Pacaya on 27 January (Pic – Supplied)

Curiously, the new millennium has been marked by a plethora of gelded Met winners, prime amongst which the triple winner Pocket Power, whose historic hat-trick is unlikely ever to be rivalled.

Sixteen years after Horse Chestnut’s tour de force, the Met was again won by a colt, the four-year-old Futura, who strode to a facile victory under the steadier of 60 kg.

Following a successful career crowned by champion honours, he retired to Drakenstein  Stud where he has acquitted himself with aplomb, albeit that he has yet to sire a Gr1 winner.

Remarkably, Drakenstein Stud is now home to three Met winners, as Futura has since been joined by One World and homebred Jet Dark.

The former, who prevailed in a gritty finish to the 2020 renewal, has made a fine start to his second career as the sire of four quickfire winners from his debut crop.

After finishing second in 2022, Jet Dark gained his revenge twelve months later when he won the Met in his last racetrack appearance.

Jet Dark (pink cape, Richard Fourie) storms up the rail to clinch the World Sports Betting Met honours in 2023 (Pic – Candiese Lenferna)

A multiple champion son of Trippi, he has just worked his way through a star-studded first book of mares, amongst which Captain’s Ransom, who ironically, denied him of Horse of the Year honours.

In the period under review, there have been a select group of seven female Met winners.

The first was the Terrance Millard-trained amazon Olympic Duel, who was no stranger to putting one over the boys. In 1991, she beat subsequent Durban July winner Spanish Galliard, and as a broodmare, became a regular consort to none other than fellow Met winner Foveros, matings which yielded Gr1 winner Flying Duel and the stakes winner Lightning Duel (subsequently dam of champion Thundering Star).

A liaison with Model Man produced Olympic Dam, whose Trippi son Gold Standard is now starting to make a name for himself as a stallion.

Empress Club bounds home under Anton Marcus in 1993 (Pic – Supplied)

In 1993, Millard’s son Tony saddled the incomparable running machine Empress Club to victory.

Raced by the Jaffees, this Argentine-bred Horse of the Year spent her entire broodmare career abroad but sadly, has faded into obscurity. She produced two minor stakes winners, one of which was her only daughter Empress Pegasus, who eventually found her way to Australia and New Zealand, where she made little impact.

Not so Northern Guest’s daughter Imperious Sue, who captured the Met five years later. She duly became dam of Gr1 Woolavington 2000 winner Imperious Star, whose first foal, the Trippi colt Double Appeal placed at Gr1 level as a juvenile.

Interesting to note that Trippi also features as the sire of stakes winner Sunset Tripp, who is out of Imperious Star’s half-sister Red Growler.

The first female Met winner of the new millennium was teak-tough River Jetez.

Third behind her legendary full brother Pocket Power in 2009, she turned the tables in 2010, ironically denying him a record fourth Met victory. She of course became a Gr1 producer with her very first foal, the Computaform Sprint winner Rivarine.

Igugu, ridden by Anthony Delpech, beats Bravura (Anton Marcus) in 2012 (Pic – Supplied)

Two years later in 2012, Mike de Kock saddled his third Met winner, the Australian-bred wonder filly Igugu, who overcame an interrupted preparation to claim the scalps of Bravura and future champion stallion Gimmethegreenlight. Also a Horse of the Year recipient, Igugu’s broodmare innings was sadly confined to just two foals before her premature death at age nine, the first of which was a stakes-placed winner of three races.

The most recent female Met winner Oh Susanna likewise came from Down Under. The only three-year-old in the 2018 line-up, the Drakenstein colour bearer downed an elite weight-for-age field to become the fourth female winner of the new millennium. She is now a member of Drakenstein’s powerful broodmare band and is the dam of a juvenile filly by Trippi and a yearling colt by fellow Met winner Futura.

A solitary female hopeful has her eye on this year’s crown.

That is champion Bless My Stars, already a galloper with credentials to be a valuable addition to the broodmare gene pool.

As regards her male rivals, this year’s final field includes Gr1 winners See It Again and Double Superlative.