Avontuur Stud, the home of such high-profile sires as Var and Oratorio, has enjoyed a fair amount of luck with a stallion who has never really grabbed the imagination of the country’s breeders and trainers.
That stallion is Greys Inn, the sire of exciting three-year-old Litigation.
Bred by Avontuur and trained by Sean Tarry, he is bound for the Gr1 SA Derby following a smashing win in the Listed Derby Trial.
Litigation – the pressure is on for the SA Derby! (Pic – JC Photos)
The colt is not the first decent Greys Inn to emerge from the Avontuur paddocks. The farm earned bragging rights as the breeder of by far his best runner, dual Horse of the Year Legal Eagle.
Anton Marcus keeps Legal Eagle going to ward off Copper Force (rail) and Captain America ahead of Sail South and Marinaresco to win the L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate (Pic – Candiese Marnewick)
When the time came for Greys Inn to retire, it was widely expected that the Oppenheimer-bred and raced champion would take up stallion duties at his owner’s famed Mauritzfontein Stud.
After all, here was a Durban July winner who had proven himself a Champion in his birth country and performed with credit at the highest level in Dubai, Hong Kong and Australia.
Greys Inn wins the 2004 Gr1 Durban July
In addition, he was by Zabeel, a multiple champion son of legendary New Zealand stallion Sir Tristram, while his dam was a half-sister to successful Australian sire and five-time Gr1 winner Zeditave.
The announcement that Greys Inn would enter stud at Rosedene Stud in the Beaufort West area no doubt raised a few eyebrows. Subsequent history shows that the horse never received the support his fine credentials deserved.
Be that as it may, Greys Inn was quick out of the blocks with a first-crop Gr1 winner when Alec Laird-trained Royal Bencher shared the honours in the SA Derby.
Greys Inn’s struck again when his next crop yielded a second Gr1 winner in King Of Pain. Trained by Joey Ramsden, his finest moment came at Clairwood, where he held off Beach Beauty and Yorker in the Gr1 Rising Sun Gold Challenge.
King Of Pain – another smart Greys Inn
The best was yet to come.
In 2010, Avontuur sent Greys Inn the National Emblem mare Young Sensation. A Gr2-placed winner of six races, she also descended from the famed taproot mare Ethane, the dam of Hawaii and William Penn.
“I loved Greys Inn as a racehorse and when he retired, we took a share in him, although Zabeel wasn’t high on my radar at the time,” Avontuur GM Pippa Mickleburgh recalled about her decision to send the mare all the way to Beaufort West.
Grey’s Inn
The stars aligned, for Young Sensation’s foal, a colt named Legal Eagle, would take trainer Sean Tarry on a heady race career which yielded two SA Horse of the Year titles and three Equus Awards as the country’s undisputed champion miler.
Also Greys Inn’s second SA Derby winner, Legal Eagle went on to amass earnings of over R12,2 million in stakes and swept a serious of top prizes, including a treble in the Gr1 L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate, a feat only bettered by four-time record-holder Pocket Power.
The thoroughbred market is a fickle one, and not even three Gr1 winners could sway breeders to appreciate Greys Inn’s accomplishments.
Let the record show that Greys Inn has averaged no more than 37 mares in his first 13 seasons at stud. From a high of 55 mares in his first year, that dwindled to just 10 mares in 2019.
Remarkably, Avontuur also bred another ‘good one’ by the stallion in Canterbury Tale, a fine stayer who won the Gr2 Gold Bowl and also ran third in the Gr1 Gold Cup.
Avontuur-bred Gold Bowl winner Canterbury Tale – son of Greys Inn
The stud’s faith in Greys Inn seems to have paid off once again with the decision to send homebred Jeter to the stallion, who at the time, stood the first part of the 2017 breeding season at Ridgemont Highlands.
“She’s a big strong, mare, the female version of her sire Jet Master, down to the white ticks in her coat!” says Pippa.
“Litigation was the most gorgeous foal, so much so that I sent a picture of him to Sean Tarry and told him, this is going to be your next Legal Eagle!”
Here is where fate stepped in. The Covid-19 epidemic was in full swing by the time the 2020 yearling sales came around, which led to a ban on public auctions.
Pippa Mickleburgh – clicked with Greys Inn
“In order to generate some cash flow, we had no alternative but to sell our stock direct off the farm,” Pippa remarked.
“Justin Vermaak came to inspect our yearlings and as an afterthought I showed him Litigation, who had grown into a fine yearling.”
He brokered the deal whereby prominent owner Laurence Wernars purchased the colt and sent him to trainer Johan Janse van Vuuren.
Here’s where fate stepped in once again. When Wernars decided to spread his huge string amongst other trainers, Litigation was transferred to the Tarry stable.
Seems the wheel has turned full circle. Whether Litigation will prove himself a bona fide Gr1 performer and scale the same heights as Legal Eagle, only time will tell.
Pippa’s belief in the colt was such that she bought a small share in Litigation, in hindsight, a shrewd one indeed. She is hopeful that lightning strikes again and for another good reason.
The colt’s yearling half-sister by Var is destined for this year’s National Yearling Sale, and while Litigation’s Derby Trial victory has already boosted her pedigree page, a Gr1 victory next to his name would look even better!
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