Sail From Seattle ( Gone West x Seattle Classic) stands at Ascot Stud
With the gigantic shoes of Ascot Stud stalwart Al Mufti to fill, the Canadian-bred Gone West stallion Sail From Seattle broke the ice early in his first crop when the speedy Alan Greeff-trained Navistar won well on his debut at Fairview on Monday 31 December.
An attractive dark bay and very talented racehorse, Sail From Seattle’s racing career was limited by an injury during his 3yo season.
Sail From Seattle has a good length of rein and is an exceptionally well balanced short- coupled individual with powerful hindquarters and good bone
He won four races from 1000 to 1400m on turf and dirt. He won the Listed Mt Sassafras Stakes at 4 and at 5 ran third in the Listed Jaques Cartier Stakes.
He stood his first season at stud in South Africa in 2009 and produced 53 foals first time round (24 colts, 29 fillies).
By a noted sire of sires in Gone West, it is indeed rare for a stallion to get a racehorse better than himself and grandsons even better still.
Gone West has proven time and again to be the source of brilliant horses, especially over a mile.
Born in 1984 Gone West displayed the brilliance which he would transmit later at stud with a crushing 12 length victory in the Gr1 Dwyer over 1800m. Gone West also won the Gr2 Gotham Stakes over a mile defeating Gulch, as well as the Gr2 Withers Stakes also run over a mile.
On the Derby trail as a three year old Gone West finished 2nd in the Gr1 Wood Memorial and the Gr2 Fountain of Youth Stakes.
Sail From Seattle is out of the unraced Seattle Slew mare, Seattle Classic.
The Maiden Juvenile Plate run over 800m to open the Fairview New Year’s Eve programme saw twelve runners to post, of which only two had raced previously.
The handsome bay colt Navistar, who was backed into a 16-10 favourite, ran on strongly under MJ Byleveld to win by a half- length in a time of 46,61 secs.
Sail From Seattle’s other son in the race, the Spies-trained Sahvara, ran fourth at his second start after doing the same first time out over the trip at Kenilworth three weeks earlier.
The winner was bred by the Baitz family in whose silks he runs, from the unraced A Mufti mare Niche.
Sail From Seattle is the property of a syndicate and stands at Rose and Ashley Parker’s Ascot Stud in the Eastern Cape for a fee of R15 000
