Quasillo (photo: hamishNIVENPhotography)
Superlatives are rather overused these days, but with 20 straight wins, it’s getting difficult to describe the mighty Winx’s track exploits as anything other than unbelievable. It is also part of the joy of modern technology that we can all watch her either live on TV or on-line and thanks to the immediacy of the on-line world, share in the immediate joy and celebration that has become so attached to this incredible race mare.
While social media can be a double-edged sword, particularly when it comes to racing, one of its advantages is making racing and our racing heroes so easily accessible and so easily lovable. We really are quite spoilt to have a choice of photographs and replays of just about any of the ‘big’ horses of the modern era. However, before the advent of all this wonderful content available at the click of a button, one had to work a little harder at finding out about our industry’s stars and if you were not tapped into the general flow of industry publications, it took an exceptional individual to make it into even the periphery of the public consciousness.
Objects in the mirror may be closer than they appear
Horses have large eyes, set on the front of their heads. This allows them a really large range of vision. The only areas they cannot see without having to turn their heads are the space between their eyes (which is why it is a gesture of trust for them to accept you stroking them on the head) as well as the space immediately behind them and I think racing is often quite similar.
They say the reason they make rearview mirrors so small and front windscreens so large is that where you’re headed is more important than where you’ve been. I’m not sure I agree with that entirely, but I do think the fact that racing focuses so relentlessly on the future does tend to make it feel as though life is flying by at a million miles an hour. No matter how much we achieve, or cram into a single race, meeting or season, we never stop scanning the horizon for the next horse, the next race, the next season. This relentless focus means that like our four legged friends, our blind spots are also the bits directly in front of us as well as the bits immediately behind us and without a concerted effort, it’s sometimes hard to quantify and judge things accurately until a little more distance has been applied.
Sea The Stars
In 2009, I was just coming to the end of my stint in the UK and even though I was focussed on quite different things at the time, the name Sea The Stars managed to filter even into my tiny little bubble. Despite being rated one of the best horses of the century, Sea The Stars seemed to come along at a funny time when social media was still gathering momentum and somehow he did not receive quite the hype that his successors have. By Cape Cross out of the Arc-winning mare, Urban Sea (making him a half brother to Galileo), his career only spanned 15 months during 2008 and 2009, but what an extraordinary 15 months it was. Trained by John Oxx and ridden throughout his career by Mick Kinane, as a 2yo, Sea The Stars finished 4th first time out at the Curragh in July 2008 (albeit behind subsequent US G1 winner, Driving Snow). He won his second start at Leopardstown by an easy 2 ½ lengths and closed his 2yo campaign with a ½ length victory over stablemate Mourayan in the Group 2 Beresford Stakes at the Curragh.
While his connections were convinced of his ability early on, it was his 3yo career that marked him as exceptional for the rest of us. He ran a total of 6 times in 2009. Each of those starts was at Group 1 level and he returned a perfect score of 6 out of 6, including a rare 2000 Guineas-Epsom Derby double, closing off his season and his career with a jaw-dropping performance in the 2009 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.
When he retired, Sea The Stars received an official rating of 136, 1lb behind both 1997 Arc winner Peintre Celebre, and Generous, a wide-margin winner of the Derby and King George in 1991, and 5lb behind Dancing Brave’s 141, although ratings agents have expressed regret at the low figure. Perhaps the best accolade is the fact that Sea The Stars stands at stud at Gilltown Stud, the only resident stallion not to have been raced by the Aga Khan himself. But as trainer John Oxx once said, “He’s perfect, the perfect racing machine. He is the point to which thoroughbred breeding, after 300 years, has arrived,” so one can understand an exception being made in his case.
Expectations were high and he did not disappoint. His progeny fetched record prices in the sale ring and then proved their worth on the track when German Derby winner Sea The Moon, who won the German Derby by 11 lengths, became his sire’s first son to retire to stud. The rest is still so much wet ink in racing’s history annals.
Our own piece of history
Somehow when the news came out that Quasillo had joined the local stallion ranks, the news flashed in and through my consciousness without fully registering. I’m embarrassed to say that it was not until my dad did a recent trip to Robertson and came home unable to stop talking about the horse that it properly hit home for the first time that we have a real live son of Sea The Stars in South Africa. I did the only sensible thing I could and hitched a ride to Robertson to see him myself.
Quasillo, from Sea The Stars’ second crop, was bred by Dr Andreas Jacobs’ Gestut Fahrhof out of Quetena, making him a three parts brother to local sire sensation, Querari.
Quasillo’s retirement to South Africa is serendipitous and due to a series of events which, while not happy for his connections, proved lucky for South Africa. As a young colt, Quasillo sustained an injury to his right hip, which prevented any chance of him being led through the sales ring and so he graduated to the care of Andreas Wohler to race in Dr Jacobs’ yellow and black silks. He won impressively on debut, which he followed up with a win in the Gr3 Bavarian Trophy to be one of the top-rated 3yo’s in Germany. He then finished ½ length second in the Gr3 Maxios Trophy after which injury cut his racing career short and he was shipped to South Africa. As Maine Chance’s stallion block is already full, Dr Jacobs chose to stand the horse just down the road at Klipdrif Stud.
Klipdrif Stud entrance (photo: hamishNIVENPhotography)
It has been a long, dry winter and even though most of the country is still shaking off the cold, summer had arrived in Robertson, making me contemplate punching the air conditioning button as we drove through town. Despite the summer temperatures everywhere else, turning up the tree-lined Klipdrif driveway, one seemed to enter a more temperate climate. Shane van Zyl was on hand to welcome us.
Quasillo has not been in the country all that long and is still letting down from racing as well as recovering from his travels, so he can only become more impressive. He was fully syndicated by John Freeman well before even setting foot on South African soil and with a fee of R12,000 (R2,000 nomination and R10,000 live foal) it is not surprising to hear that he is already fully booked.
Shane tells me that he has been covering twice a day every day since the first of September and is a consummate professional.
Handsome Is As Handsome Does
Flashy horses with lots of white can be deceptive as the ‘chrome’ often hides a multitude of sins. Without the camouflage of bling factor, plain horses perhaps have a slightly harder job as any faults are easier to pick out. Barring a small white marking on his near hind, Quasillo is a solid bright chestnut from head to foot, but other than that, it is hard to fault him. He stands a surprising 16’1 and screams quality from a mile off. He has a magnificent shoulder, stands over a lot of ground and has a very good walk. Although clearly disappointed at being led out for a human visitor rather than an equine one, he took it in relatively good humour and showed off a bit nonetheless.
A fitting tribute – Jet Master’s memorial wall (photo: hamishNIVENPhotography)
It is always difficult to find an opportune time for a visit during the breeding season as between foals arriving and mares needing to be covered, there is barely time to draw breath, although Shane kindly said I had chosen a quiet day to visit. Nonetheless, while we were looking at the stallion, a foal was being born on the other side of the barn, so we got to watch it take its first steps and pay our respects to Jet Master on the way. The grand old man of Klipdrif is buried not far from his stable in a tranquil spot in their immaculate gardens, and has a beautiful stone wall erected over his grave. It is a fitting tribute to the 7-time Champion Sire.
I’m not entirely sure what to make of it, but under the bare fingers of the tree-lined avenue to his paddock, my photos of the setting look wintery and very European and the strange, other worldly feel stuck with me as we rolled the hot miles home again.
They say a stallion’s pedigree tells you what they could be, their performance tells you what they should be and their progeny tells you what they are. Quasillo may still have to tell us what his is, but what an enormous privilege to have a horse like this in our stallion ranks.
