Martial Eagle, the longshot winner of Saturday’s J&B Met, is the latest Gr1 winner bred on one of the most successful cross in thoroughbred history. His sire, Silvano, is a great grandson of Nijinsky, and his dam is by the Blushing Groom horse Jallad.
This Nijinsky II/Blushing Groom cross (and Blushing Groom/Nijinsky cross) has produced numerous high-class horses over the years, including world champions Lammtarra, Sky Beauty, Quest For Fame, Fantastic Light, Kahyasi, Golan and Wandesta, to name a few. Remarkably, Lammtarra, Quest For Fame, and Kahyasi all won the Epsom Derby – and Kahyasi has since become a successful sire, and world leading broodmare sire.
South African stars bred on this cross include the ill-fated Spook Express, Algoa Cup hero Forest of Dean and Gold Cup winner Major Bluff. This mating has also produced another tragic champion in the late Rabiya (a son of Blushing Groom horse Jallad out of a Royal Academy (Nijinsky II) mare).
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Caviar relative wins in SA
The smartly bred filly Essenelles, who recently broke her maiden in South Africa, is certainly a blue-blooded miss!
The filly is one of a handful in South Africa who can claim relationship with the mighty, unbeaten Australian mare, Black Caviar.
A daughter of multiple champion sire Encosta De Lago, Essenelles is out of Bespoken – dam of Bel Esprit.
The latter, a former G1 Blue Diamond Stakes winner, is Black Caviar’s sire – and Essenelles has strong claims to being one of the best bred fillies in South Africa.
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Season highlights
With the running of the Met on Saturday, the Cape Summer Season effectively sizzled to a close.
So what were the Summer Season’s highlights?
One race which stood out was the first juvenile race of the season, which saw a National Assembly filly take on fillies by National Emblem (National Assembly) and Rebel King (National Emblem). I can’t think offhand when a sire, grandsire and great grandsire all had runners in one South African race.
Variety Club’s continuing brilliance was also one of the season’s standout memories. The magnificent chestnut was sensational in all three starts, and was a deserving, and impressive winner of the L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate. Unfortunately this great race was marred by a false start, which added unnecessary, and unwelcome, drama to what has become one of South Africa’s truly great race days.
Variety Club’s sire Var had another superb season, with Variety Club and Via Africa ensuring their sire’s name stayed in the headlines. Var also managed to trifecta a juvenile race, when Sea Cat beat Tour de Var and Bold Var earlier in the season.
Another top sire to enjoy an excellent Cape Summer Season was veteran stallion, Western Winter. His sons Capetown Noir and What A Winter were two of the Summer Season’s stars, with both colts striking excellent form. Capetown Noir’s win in the G1 Cape Premier Yearling Sales Guineas was one of the most impressive wins seen in recent times, and he looks very special, even if he was not quite as impressive when landing the Gr1 Investec Cape Derby on Met day.
What A Winter has been one of the Cape’s stars for the past three seasons, and he will be missed when he retires to Drakenstein later this year. His record in the G1 Cape Flying Championship alone is a superb one – having won it twice, and been second, after a memorable duel with champion Val de Ra, on a previous occasion.
No doubt, What A Winter, with his superb race record and fine pedigree, will prove a sought after sire when retired to the breeding barn! Unfortunately, the season had negative moments as well, with one being the controversy surrounding the start of the Queen’s Plate.
Another came when the Gauteng filly, Welwitschia had to be withdrawn from the Southern Cross Stakes, after rearing up and injuring herself severely in the process. That was one of the season’s low points, and an incident which could possibly have been avoided.
Gutsy mare Beach Beauty, in contrast, was another highlight of the season. The gutsy daughter of Dynasty richly deserved her first G1 success, and she could not have been a more impressive victor of the G1 Maine Chance Paddock Stakes – a race in which she looked unlucky the previous year. The mare confirmed her class with another game performance in Saturday’s J&B Met.
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Galileo
Galileo’s harem
The world’s number one stallion Galileo is without doubt one of the finest sires ever to stand at stud in Ireland. His dominance was clear for all to see in 2012, when Galileo’s progeny not only took high order on the race track, but also were hugely popular in the sales ring.
In 2012, Galileo’s stock included no fewer than 35 individual stakes winners, of which included world champion Frankel, the Oaks winning fillies Was (Investec) and Great Heavens (Irish), and leading 2013 classic contender, Kingsbarns (Racing Post Trophy). In 2012, Galileo’s stock earned over 7.2 million pounds – or over R100 000 000. He has now been champion sire in Ireland/UK on four occasions, and Galileo should add to this tally handsomely in the coming years.
In the sales ring, Galileo’s yearlings thoroughly dominated the 2012 Tattersalls October Yearling Sale (Book One) and Goffs Orby Sale. At Tatts, a Galileo three parts brother to Derby winner Authorized fetched 2 500 000 guineas, while at the Orby Sale a Galileo colt topped the sale, when knocked down to Jehan Malherbe for 800,000 euros.
Needless to say, Galileo will be covering some of the world’s very best mares in 2013-02-01 Here are a few of the star matrons due to visit him this year:
CHACHAIMADEE (G1 Matron Stakes)
DESERT CLASSIC (dam of Breeders Cup winner Wrote)
EBONY FLYER (Multiple G1 winner in SA)
FLEETING SPIRIT (G1 July Cup)
FUNSIE (dam of G1 Authorized)
GILT EDGE GIRL (G1 Prix de l’Abbaye)
HOMECOMING QUEEN (1000 Guineas, ½ sister to Dylan Thomas)
MAGNIFICENT STYLE (dam of 3 G1 winners, inc Nathaniel and Great Heavens)
OUIJA BOARD (World Champion)
PENANG PEARL (dam of champion Harbinger)
TAHIRA (dam of Gilt Edge Girl)
Continuing to cover world -class mares, and numerous promising classic prospects for 2013, Galileo’s dominance of world class races looks set to continue for many years to come.
