This weekend it will be a dozen years since Pierre Jourdan made light of his 61 kg impost to land the Gr2 Charity Mile at Turffontein at his second attempt.
An eye-catching fifth, and the fastest finisher of all, was undoubtedly St John Gray’s homebred champion Dancewiththedevil, who had cornered stone last but closed fast on the outside to finish five lengths behind the winner.
Champion Dancewiththedevil wins the Sansui Summer Cup
That effort served as a perfect prep for the Gr1 Sansui Summer Cup four weeks later, where the mare turned the tables and exacted a handsome revenge under similar tactics.
Patiently ridden from behind, she turned for home in her customary last position but made smooth progress in the straight, picking off her rivals one by one.
Unleashing her trademark turn of foot, she gained the advantage inside the final furlong and powered home to win with plenty in hand.
That was a fourth Gr1 success for the mare, who at four, had established herself as arguably the season’s leading miler with a fine Gr1 treble in the Horse Chestnut, Empress Club Stakes and Gold Challenge, an achievement which earned her a deserved accolade of the Equus Champion Older Filly/Mare.
Dancewiththedevil would add a fifth Gr1 success to her tally when she defended her HF Oppenheimer crown at her favourite racetrack.
Once again, she turned on the afterburners in the straight and it was race over, as she surged into the lead en route to another awesome victory, her winning margin of over three lengths flattering her star-studded male rivals.
The lure of an overseas campaign resulted in Dancewiththedevil’s export to the UK, where she managed just one start for Newmarket trainer Roger Varian.
Rising seven at the time, that was to be her first outing in 14 months and not surprisingly, she finished unplaced.
She never raced again and returned to South Africa to start her new life as a broodmare at her birthplace, Hadlow Stud.
Devilish Dancer and Seek Permission enjoy each other’s company in the beautiful Hadlow paddocks
Sadly, her second career didn’t match the excitements of her feats on the track and she died all too early at age 14, leaving just four foals, all fillies.
Lady Luck certainly did not smile on the champion’s broodmare innings, considering that her first foal, a filly by Silvano, died of colic, while her last foal fractured a hock and never raced.
In between she produced Devilish Dancer to Silvano and Risky Business to his barnmate Querari. Like their mother, both raced in the Gray silks, the former scoring twice whilst Risky Business has won once and is still in training.
While Dancewiththedevil is no more, Devilish Dancer has returned to the Hadlow broodmare paddocks, where she has joined the mare’s unraced last foal Seek Permission, by Gimmethegreenlight.
Devilish Dancer arrives at Hadlow Stud
Hadlow Stud’s Cathy Martin fondly refers to them as “my Devil children, and I love them both.”
She added: “This is the first breeding season for both of them. Devilish Dancer has been covered by Chimichuri Run. She looks just like Mom and is a horse with a wonderful temperament. Seek Permission was in utero when Dancewiththedevil got sick, so she was raised by a foster mother. She is in foal to Eden Roc.”
The disappointment of Dancewiththedevil’s broodmare record shouldn’t diminish the bright memory of her racing achievements, besides, as history shows, it not uncommon for excellence in a pedigree to skip a generation.
Let’s hope this remarkable racemare’s daughters will do their bit to maintain family honours.
