Shoot for the Moon

Full brother to Champion Filly Val de Ra

The ultimate goal of Racing is about shooting for the moon, finding that champion racehorse that emerges from the pack to become a star, taking owner and trainer alike on an incredible journey locally and internationally, to challenge the pinnacles of the sport.  If that’s the finish line, then this is the starting line – the Cape Premier Yearling Sales Book 1, which launches this week.

The select catalogue is sleeker than the 2012 version, with a little over 100 horses trimmed from last year’s 350, making for a more focused sale, in which earlier, more mature individuals are lined up for buyers, with a strong emphasis on conformation and on proven sires.

In 2012, there were 21 yearlings that made more than R1million with the top priced colt making R2.8million and the top filly R2.2million.  Predictably, both were by 7 times Champion Sire Jet Master, whose presence will loom large in 2013 as this is his final crop.

The great sire is going to be sadly missed and his 8 progeny in this sale are the rare stand outs that every owner will savour. Three are out of Gr1 Winners : Nania, Sports Chestunt and Lyrical Linda;  there are a colt from Lady Kiri, who is the dam of G1W Talahatchee; Two others are from GSW mares Azabu Park and Le Deportista.

In the year of Jet Master’s son Pomodoro aiming for the July-J&B Met double last achieved by Jet Master’s son Pocket Power, it’s hard not to see Jet Master’s final crop topping the sale.

A standout pedigree however, that jumps out of the catalogue at you, is Avontuur Stud’s Lot 226, Vincente, a colt by Var out of Minelli by Elliodor.  He is the full brother to the flying machine, the brilliant Champion Filly Val de Ra, winner of 11 of 13 starts including the Computaform Sprint G1 and Cape Flying Championship G1 defeating the colts.   Val de Ra is now in England, aiming for a date with Oasis Dream and then a mating to the legendary Frankel.  Val de Ra is not the only top horse produced by Minelli as she also has produced the SW Mitra and this week’s Cape Premier Yearling Sales runner Tevez, a top horse in the making.

Three lots after Vincente, Avontuur will offer a filly by Var out of Mitra, and therefore a three quarter sister to Val de Ra!

It’s the year of Var, with the great success of last year’s Guineas winner Variety Club becoming Horse of the Year and proving that Var is capable of producing more than sprinters. He is on his way to becoming a truly outstanding sire and he has a fine draft for Book 1.

If you are planning to win the Vodacom Durban July, look no further than Highlands Farm’s Lot 150, a grey Dynasty colt out of the great champion racemare Dancer’s Daughter (GB).  It’s the first time two July winners have been mated together – and its one of those matings that dreams are made of.  Father and mother  won 9 Grade 1 races between them.

Statisticians will advise you that the probability of this colt being a champion racehorse is 25 times greater than the average mating.  Whilst there are no certainties in the ‘glorious uncertainty of horse racing’ it’s hard not to see this colt at the top end of the sale and at the races.

Full sister to Champion Mother Russia

When Mother Russia (Windrush-Russian Muse) won the L’Ormarins Queens Plate 2011, recording her 4th Gr1 win, she elevated herself amongst the greatest fillies of the turf in SA history with 13 wins and over R5m in earnings.

Selling as lot 37, Normandy Stud will offer her full sister in Book 1 and this family is blooming with Investec Cape Derby winner Bravura and the sprinter Depardieu the latest new stakes winners.

Four times Champion Sire Western Winter has sired 74 individual SW and so far, 16 Gr1 Winners. He starts the CPYS-1 sale offering a magnificent individual, a full brother to the Gr1 winning filly Nania. Their dam Nacarat is a sister to Gr1 Winners Set Afire (3 Gr1 wins) and Rudra (Summer Cup Gr1).  Western Winter fields 10 other well bred yearlings in the sale.

Champion 2YO Sire, Captain Al, a winner of the Cape Guineas back in 1999, is a prolific sire of SW, especially fillies, having sired 2011-12 champion juvenile filly All Is Secret.  He has the highest number of progeny in the sale with 31, a huge draft of quality horses.

It includes a half sister to 2008 Champion 3YO and multiple Gr1 Winner Russian Sage, now a stallion, and a half sister to the outstanding fillies Sweet Sunnette (won over R6m racing in SA, Hong Kong and England) and to the current star sprinter Franny.

Silvano has a big draft of 21 in the sale. Already sire of 8 Gr1 Winners, including the July hero Bold Silvano, Silvano looks increasingly likely to attain Champion Sire status at some point in his career. He produces Classic winning colts and fillies, and is a thoroughly consistent sire of top earners.

Drakenstein’s young sire Trippi, who has 47 SW across the world, has emerged as a popular stallion in strong demand and has 27 in the sale, whilst Tiger Ridge, sire of the Sansui Summer Cup Gr1 winner Wagner, has 8 lots entered.

Overseas based stallions are represented again – including America’s hottest young sire Tapit (sire of 9 Gr1 winners in his first 3 crops), the evergreen Danehill Dancer (142 SW), and  Pure Prize (42 SW).

First season sires are always interesting and we see the  progeny of Mambo In Seattle (USA),  Seventh Rock (AUS), Oracy (NZ), Elusive Fort, King’s Apostle (IRE), Lateral (GB) and interestingly, Archipenko (USA), who raced with such success under the SA Flag for Mike de Kock, winning Graded races around the world, and now standing at stud in UK.

Whilst the Cape Premier Yearling Sale is enveloped in an explosive advertising campaign designed to attract bidders from across the country and showcase South Africa to the world, the market realisation is that the sale has something for everyone, as the table on the left illustrates.