Avontuur’s top sire Var, a dual leading sire of 2yo’s in South Africa, made headlines in Hong Kong on Sunday when his son Supreme Patrol won at Sha Tin racecourse.
Varallo winning at Hollywoodbets Greyville earlier in his career (Pic – Candiese Liebenberg)
The gelded Supreme Patrol, who raced under the name of Varallo in South Africa, scored a fluent win in Sunday’s San Po Kong Handicap over 1200m at Sha Tin.
Under jockey Blake Shinn, the Varsfontein Stud bred Supreme Patrol tracked the leaders early on before hitting the front with a furlong left to run and went on to score by a length and a half.
The gelding won three times in South Africa and ran second in the 2018 Gr1 Tsogo Sun Gold Medallion.
Supreme Patrol, a R2 000 000 buy from the 2016 National Yearling Sale, is trained by former champion South African trainer David Ferraris.
He was raced here by Alesh Naidoo’s Fire Racing Trust, and carries the partnership flag of Alan Chow Kwun Lun & Gordon Fung Ping Chung in Hong Kong,
Sunday’s regally bred winner is a son of Avontuur’s perennially successful resident sire Var and top-class racemare and producer Covenant. The latter, a daughter of multiple champion South African sire Western Winter, won seven races including the G1 Majorca Stakes and two runnings of the G2 Sceptre Stakes.
From the same family as Master Of My Fate, London News and Kings Gambit, Covenant is currently responsible for four winners including this season’s top-class 3yo, and future Varsfontein stallion, Erik The Red.
The sire of nearly 100 stakes horses, Var had an outstanding season in 2020 with his representatives headed by the G1 winners Anything Goes, Rivarine and Vardy.
