July started with a bang for the Australasian breeding industries. North of the equator the NZ-bred champion So You Think beat the Derby and Arc winner Workforce in the Eclipse Stakes in England; while in the southern hemisphere one of South Africa’s biggest racedays was dominated by Aus-breds.
Admittedly, some of the Aus-breds in question have a very European feel to them. For instance, Durban July Handicap winner Igugu is by the Irish-bred 2001 Derby winner Galileo from the Irish-bred mare Zarinia, who is a descendant of the late Prince Aly Khan’s charismatic dual Coronation Cup winner Petite Etoile and is thus from the same family as the Irish-bred 2008 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner Zarkava. Even so, that does not alter the fact that Australian studs can take the credit for the winners of three of the four Grade One winners on Greyville’s biggest raceday. All was not lost, though, for the South African bloodstock community, because the other Grade One was won by a South African-bred daughter of one of the finest South African-breds in history: the sadly deceased Victory Moon, writes John Berry.
