The flying Silvano! Happy Valentine is very promising
Happy Valentine, winner of the recent Gr1 Allan Robertson to remain unbeaten in 2 starts, has been bought by Team Valor International(TVI).
Robin Bruss handled the sale on behalf of TVI owner Barry Irwin.
The Silvano filly will have her final start of the season on 6 July in the Gr1 Golden Slipper Stakes at Greyville over 1400m. She has already drawn an advantageous inside post position.
Two-year-old Happy Valentine will remain with her current trainer Vaughan Marshall, according to Barry Irwin.
“Why change?” Irwin said. “Vaughan knows the filly and she is running well.”
Irwin said he plans to follow a similar plan with the filly that Team Valor employed successful with its former 3yo Champion Captain’s Lover.
“We will ask Vaughan to give her a breather after the Golden Slipper,” Irwin explained. “Then prep her once in Cape Town and run her in the Gr1 Cape Fillies Guineas. After that she will be exported to France, where she will race briefly with Andre Fabre, then come to America to be conditioned by our new private trainer Rick Mettee.”
Irwin watched Happy Valentine win the Allan Robertson live and immediately phoned Bruss to instruct him to try to buy the filly for Team Valor.
Another Good Buy! Team Valor International’s Barry Irwin
“She certainly has a right to run past sprint distances, being by Silvano,” Irwin said. “But if all she ever does is sprint, that would be fine with me, because she is very fast and South Africa has produced some of the greatest female sprinters in the world.
“We look forward to racing her internationally for the next few years and are thrilled to have her in our stable.”
Irwin also notes that he has enjoyed considerable success buying horses from or bred by Andreas Jacobs, a list that includes the likes of Graded international stakes winners such as Gitano Hernando and Daveron. Jacobs also is responsible for developing the family of Team Valor’s international super star Animal Kingdom.
Happy Valentine was bred by Maine Chance farms by the outstanding Silvano and is out of the unraced National Assembly mare, Happy Ever After.
She changed hands at R240 000 on the 2012 KZN Yearling Sale.
Happy Valentine took her stake earnings to R420 000 after the Allan Robertson win.
