‘It is eerie to think that there would have been no Siren’s Call, Sound Of Warning, or for that matter Call To Unite, had fate not decreed that Enchanted Cove follow her dam to South Africa, and that Peter de Beyer had the foresight to return Elusive Fort back home from the States as well!’
Call To Unite (Rachel Venniker) is led in by Jonathan Snaith and Phumzile Petsenge (Pic – Chase Liebenberg)
Champion sprinter Via Africa’s daughter Autumn Glow continues to go from strength the strength in Australia.
This past weekend, the Chris Waller-trained filly made it three from three when she added Randwick’s Gr2 Tea Rose Stakes to her previous success in the Gr3 Up And Coming Stakes.
In a recent article, we posed the question whether Via Africa would have been as effective a broodmare had she remained in South Africa. We will never know, as there is no chance of her ever returning to her birth country. She is far too valuable!
Autumn Glow makes history In the Gr3 Up And Coming Stakes (Pic – Inglis)
One exceptional filly who did return to her birth country was Jungle Cove’s daughter Enchanting, a dual Gr1 winner for the late Graham Beck, who just happens to be the ancestress of last weekend’s Settler’s Trophy winner Call To Unite.
The son of Vercingetorix is out of her great-grandaughter Siren’s Call, a member of Elusive Fort’s first crop. Successful in both the Gr1 SA Classic and Gr2 Gauteng Fillies Guineas, she narrowly missed out on the Triple Tiara when beaten narrowly in the (then) Gr1 SA Oaks.
Enchanting (Pic – Supplied / thanks to Susan Rowett)
But back to Enchanting.
She commenced her broodmare career at her owner’s Kentucky farm and returned to South Africa with her fourth foal, a Spend A Buck filly, at her side.
Enchanting’s dam, Lucky Libra (Pic – Supplied / thanks to Susan Rowett)
At the time, she left behind a yearling filly by Wolf Power named Enchanted Cove who won four races stateside and eventually followed her dam back to South Africa at age nine while in foal to Salt Lake.
Unfortunately, the foal, a colt, died after birth.
West Man (Gone West – Belka)
Put back in foal to then Highlands stallion West Man, Enchanted Cove duly gave birth to a filly the following spring.
Named Siren’s Cove, she was sold to Peter de Beyer and won him two sprint races. Retained as a broodmare, she produced five foals, leaving the best for last when he sent her to Elusive Fort in his first season at stud. The result of that mating was Siren’s Call.
At the end of her racing career, De Beyer sold a half-share in Siren’s Call to Drakenstein Stud, where she has done sterling service as a broodmare, given that Call To Unite is her second stakes winner from her first three foals.
Sound Of Warning edges ahead under Grant van Niekerk (Pic – JC Photos)
Her first stakes winner, the Trippi filly Sound Of Warning was trained by Sean Tarry and carried the Drakenstein silks with distinction, winning the Gr3 Strelitzia Stake as a juvenile and running second in the Gr1 Allan Robertson.
At three she claimed the Gr3 Magnolia Handicap and earned additional Gr1 black type when third in the SA Fillies Sprint at Hollywoodbets Scottsville. She joined her dam in the Drakenstein paddocks last spring and was covered by What A Winter.
Call To Unite’s stakes victory is tinged with sadness, as it was in the same week that Siren’s Call lost her battle against laminitis.
For now, it will be up to Sound Of Warning to keep the flame alive, so to speak. Siren’s Call has three more progeny set to race, a three-year-old filly by Lancaster Bomber, a juvenile colt by Gimmethegreenlight and a yearling filly by What A Winter.
It is eerie to think that there would have been no Siren’s Call, Sound Of Warning, or for that matter Call To Unite, had fate not decreed that Enchanted Cove follow her dam to South Africa and that Peter de Beyer had the foresight to return Elusive Fort back home from the States as well!
SA Triple Tiara 2015 action as Pine Princess (Anthony Delpech) beats the gallant Siren’s Call (Piere Strydom) in a thrilling finish to the SA Oaks (Pic – JC Photos)
By the way, Enchanting went on to carve out a fine broodmare record at Highlands.
Her first South African foal was none other than the all-conquering Harry’s Charm, the Champion two and three-year-old filly of her generation and Champion Older Female Sprinter at four.
A dual Gr1 winner of the SA Nursery and Allan Robertson Fillies Futurity at two, she went on to add the Gr1 SA Fillies Sprint and two renewals of the Gr1 Mondi Sprint.
Beck sent her to Kentucky.
However, she proved a disappointing failure as a broodmare.
To a certain extent, she was redeemed when unraced daughter Granny Leah was sent to South Africa in foal to Tapit, the resultant foal being the grey Rodney, who became a Gr3-placed stakes winner in the Beck silks.
Mated to National Assembly, Enchanting produced a second Gr1 winning filly in Enchantress, who emulated her half-sister’s success in the SA Fillies Sprint and likewise was named the country’s Champion Older Female Sprinter.
She was owned by Lammerskraal and in due course became a Gr1 producer, courtesy of Parade Leader daughter Laverna, the Equus Champion Juvenile filly of 2008 and winner of the Thekwini Stakes.
Also dam of the Gr3 winners Nevvay and Wylie Wench, Enchantress features as the grandam of the stakes winners Fabian and Future Variety.
As for the Spend A Buck filly imported alongside Enchanting, she raced twice for the Becks as Enchanted Dollar, and when returned to Highlands, she too, clicked with National Assembly, producing one of the finest sprinters of the modern era in National Currency.
National Assembly
A champion at two and three, he won all of the Gr1 Gold Medallion, Computaform Sprint and Mercury Sprint.
Sent overseas, he was game in defeat when second in the Gr1 Hong Kong Sprint Cup to the local hero Silent Witness and dazzled in Dubai’s Al Shindagha Sprint, where he cruised home by six and a half lengths. Tragically, he died a few weeks later from what was believed to be a scorpion or snake bite, thus robbing Highlands and South Africa of a potential international star, not to mention a future stallion.
National Currency’s own sister Dollar Bright likewise proved her prowess as a sprinter, winning the Gr2 Camellia Stakes and Listed Swallow Stakes. In yet another cruel twist of fate, she too died before she could start her broodmare career.
Fortunately, the Enchanted Cove branch lives on through stakes-placed Var daughter Enchanting Cathy, the dam of recent Spring Spree Stakes hero Back In Business.
Graham Beck
Enchanting’s Golden Thatch daughter Goldie’s Song, a modest winner at three, also returned to Highlands where she bred the dual stakes winning sprinter Trance to the Danzig horse Joshua Dancer.
Incidentally, prior to Enchanting’s return, Beck had sent her first Spend A Buck daughter Magic Spender to race in South Africa. Although she failed to earn black type, she had won eight races by the time she joined the Highlands broodmare band and bred nine winners from ten foals, one of which, the National Assembly filly Monopoly, added to the family fortunes as the dam of Darley Arabian winner Maximizer.
There is no doubt that Enchanting proved her prowess both on the racetrack and in the breeding paddocks.
We salute the late Graham Beck for having the foresight to return her to South Africa, where, together with her daughters, she has created her own little dynasty.
May it continue to prosper.
