The Glen Kotzen trained Mount Keith’s runaway win at Kenilworth on Saturday marked an opening South African success for the well-bred recently imported Oratorio stallion, Fencing Master.
Fencing Master (Oratorio – Moonlight Dance) – off the mark in SA
The 3yo Mount Keith, bred and owned by Colin Bird, had earned at 4 of his first 6 starts and slammed his field by 5,5 lengths in the fashion of a youngster going places.
Gr2 Selangor Cup winning trainer Glen Kotzen confirmed the impression, saying ‘there was much more to come from this fellow’. The winner is out of the three-time winning Kahal mare, Mandla.
Fencing Master arrived from Zimbabwe earlier this year and stands at Hemel ‘N Aarde Stud in Hermanus at a fee of R10 000.
His first crop are split between Zimbabwe and South Africa, and his Kenilworth success follows a recent 1-2 at Borrowdale, where on 25 September his useful looking son Shepparton (out of Bliss Point by Kitalpha) beat the Fencing Master filly Don’tfencemein over 1100m.
Fencing Master (nearside) goes down narrowly in the Gr1 Dewhurst Stakes at Newmarket
A €400 000 yearling, the lightly campaigned Fencing Master won over 1400m at 2 in Ireland.
His peak performance came in the Gr1 Dewhurst Stakes, a race that often determines the European Champion 2 Year Old colt. Racing in the Coolmore partnership colours, the goodlooking athlete was beaten a neck into second.
Oratorio (Danehill – Mahrah)
He is by Avontuur stallion Oratorio, a Gr1 winner, who has produced 7 international Gr1 winners and 76 stakes performers worldwide.
Fencing Master is out of the Gr1 winning Alysheba mare, Moonlight Dance (Alysheba) – who in turn is out of a multiple Gr1 winner.
There are no less than 42 Stakes winners in Fencing Master’s first 3 dams including 8 Gr1 winners.
In an innovative show of support for the stallion and his breeding and racing patrons, a R1 million bonus awaits the owner, trainer and breeder of the best three black type Fencing Master 2 year olds conceived in 2016.
