Champion Robertson nursery Ridgemont Highlands will offer a high quality draft of ten mares at the De Grendel Wines Mare & Mixed Sale on Thursday.
The draft includes mares in foal to the likes of South Africa’s Leading First Season for 2020-2021 Rafeef, and Ridgemont Highlands’ multiple Gr1 winning international performer Canford Cliffs, who produced yet another Australian Stakes winner on Saturday.
Hot new sire – Rafeef!
A champion son of Redoute’s Choice out of a former South African Horse Of The Year National Colour, Ridgemont’s resident fast ascending star Rafeef has been the talking sire of his first season, and produced his tenth first crop winner just last Friday.
Proving a perfect foil to the exciting Rafeef on the Ridgemont Highlands stallion roster is the internationally acknowledged five-time Gr1 winner Canford Cliffs, who has sired 367 winners and has produced 31 international stakes winners in both hemispheres.
Canford Cliff’s latest stakes winner – Money Matters
Between the dazzlingly diverse duo, they have covered seven of the ten Ridgemont Highlands mares offered at the beautiful De Grendel Wine Estate, in what Craig Carey describes as a draft ‘power-packed with paddock potential’.
“The Ridgemont Highlands team can be proud of the quality and diversity of our draft for Thursday’s sale. They are tough, well-bred quality mares in foal to a selection of a quartet of sires, including our resident flagbearers Rafeef and Canford Cliffs, that are going to make a big impact here over the next few seasons. The bloodlines, performance and statistics are there on paper to do the talking. I wish the prospective new owners the very best of champion good fortune,” Carey told the Sporting Post.
Rafeef’s quintet of coverings kicks off with #20 Cup Of Rubies, a Mogok daughter who hails from the same female line as breed- shaping sire Fappiano. The three time winning half-sister to Durban July winner Hunting Tower has already produced two smart winners, including Gr1 2yo, Crimson King.
Also in foal to the Gr1 winning Rafeef, Jallad’s daughter, #55 Murmering Sky is out of a stakes placed daughter of champion US sire Thunder Gulch. Murmering Sky won six and ran second in the Gr3 Flamboyant Stakes.
Princess Of The Sky (Aldo Domeyer) holds off Piere Strydom and the flying Acrostar (Equine Edge)
Jet Master’s stakes winning daughter #64 Princess Of The Sky is a close relative of Gr1 winner Love Is In The Air, and is another who sells in foal to Rafeef.
Another of the Rafeef quintet is #72 Sassy Sal, a dual winning High Chapparal own sister to Ladies Mile & Olympic Duel stakes victress Chevauchee. Her granddam won the Irish Oaks!
Var’s Milkwood Stakes winner #86 Variety Star is the last of the Ridgemont Highlands draft to sell in foal to Gr1 winning sprinter, Rafeef.
Two mares in foal to Canford Cliffs will also be offered on the Ridgemont Highlands draft.
#25 is Double Black, a three-time winning Twice Over half-sister to Champagne Stakes winner Nastergal.
#38 is the almost snow white In Like Flynn, pictured above, is a National Assembly half-sister to the high-class Zimbabwean runner Lucky Sam. In Like Flynn is a course record setting stakes winner, and a Gr3 Prix du Cap runner up.
Deep Impact’s Gr1 winning son Danon Platina is the covering sire of two of the ten strong Ridgemont draft.
First up is #3 Always Dancing, the Oratorio winning half-sister to Gr3 Starling Stakes winner She’s A Giver.
Next of the Danon Platina coverings is Spectrum’s daughter #69 Russet Savannah, who is out of a Badger Land mare and is a winning half-sister to Gr1 winner and Fillies Guineas victress, On Her Toes.
Last, but definitely not least, Gr1 Cape Guineas William Longsword, a son of Champion Sire and Sire-of-sires Captain Al, and a half brother to Gr1 winner Real Princess, is the covering sire of Trippi’s daughter #66 Royal Trip.
The latter is a stakes winning half-sister to recent Gr1 Horse Chestnut Stakes runner-up Copper Mountain.
The Ridgemont Highlands team is ready to welcome you at the 2021 De Grendel Wines Mare & Mixed Sale, in partnership with Meerkat Online Auctions, to be held at the De Grendel Wine Estate on Thursday at 14h00.
