The new racing season started on a high note for Varsfontein Stud with homebred Mascherina’s maiden stakes success in the Listed Off To Stud Stakes at Hollywoodbets Scottsville.
Mascherina (Tristan Godden) wins the Listed Off To Stud Stakes (Pic – Candiese Lenferna)
The daughter of resident champion stallion Gimmethegreenlight and the Fort Wood mare Justthewayyouare is the latest stakes winner to emerge from a female family which the revered stud, now in its Golden Jubilee year, has nurtured and taken to new heights in recent times.
It all began in 1998 when the farm outlaid R750 000 for the Bush Telegraph mare Secret Pact, which, at the time, was a South African record price for a broodmare.
A multiple Gr1-placed stakes winning own sister to Horse of the Year London News, her dam was the remarkable Broodmare of the Year Soho Secret, herself a dual stakes winner of ten races and twice Gr1-placed. In addition to her superb pedigree, Secret Pact was a looker to boot and was in foal to leading sire Elliodor.
In short, she was the complete package.
Varsfontein next sent her to Fort Wood, to whom she foaled the filly Secret Heart, who raced with distinction in the colours of the late Laurie Jaffee, for whom she won the Listed Prix du Cap, while her impressive list of placed efforts included thirds in all of the Gr1 Cape Fillies Guineas, Gr1 SA Fillies Guineas, Gr1 Garden Province Stakes and Gr1 Paddock Stakes.
That piqued the interest of Team Valor’s Barry Irwin who purchased the filly and exported her to the States.
Retired to the broodmare paddocks, Secret Heart came up trumps with her first foal, the Breeders Cup Juvenile Turf winner Pluck, a near black colt by Gimmethegreenlight’s sire More Than Ready.
Also dam of Gr3 Red Carpet Handicap victress Three Hearts, Secret Heart sadly died at age 15, a loss Irwin described at the time as ‘a hard one to swallow.
She was an ideal mare, she had speed, she had size, her pedigree improved every year and her first foal was sensational.’
By the way, Varsfontein kept Secret Heart’s winning own sister Secret Mission, who when mated to Gimmethegreenlight in his first season, produced Gr2 Umkhomazi Stakes winner Hack Green.
Secret Pact again visited Elliodor, the result of which a November-born filly named Promisefrommyheart.
The brilliant Promisefrommyheart – stallion Master Of My Fate’s mom (Pic – Supplied)
Slow to mature, she was entered for the 2YO Sale, but that fell through when she suffered what can now be regarded as a fortuitous setback and instead, joined the stable of Geoff Woodruff under whose guidance she became a champion on the track, winning the SA Fillies Guineas, Triple Tiara, the Woolavington, Thekwini Stakes and Ipi Tombe Challenge in the Varsfontein silks.
Fate again intervened when heart strain brought her racing career to a premature end.
Immediately retired to stud, Promisefrommyheart would produce seven foals before her death at age 14, four of which were fillies. Of the six that raced, all won, the most successful of which the magnificent Jet Master colt Master Of My Fate.
A multiple Gr2 winner, he returned to his birthplace and has made a huge impression as a top five stallion, to the extent that he was the country’s second leading sire in 2021.
Master Of My Fate – majestic son of Jet Master (Pic – Jeremy Nelson)
His Fort Wood half-sister Justthewayyouare won the Listed Spook Express Handicap and prior to Mascherina, produced the Captain Al siblings Captain Splendid and Malmoos. The former, who was the mare’s first foal, claimed both the Gr3 East Cape Derby and Lonsdale Stirrup Cup.
Full brother Malmoos went on to even better things.
A ‘wow’ horse who commanded R4,4-million as a yearling, he lived up to his lofty price tag by lifting the coveted Triple Crown and eventually retired to Ridgemont Highlands in 2022.
Fidelity, an own sister to Malmoos, returned to Varsfontein as a modest one-time winner but quickly made headlines when her first foal, the Var filly Ghaalla, sold to Shadwell for a then record R5-million at the National Yearling Sale.
She became her young dam’s first stakes winner with victory in the Gr3 Fillies Mile and was followed by the Silvano filly Due Diligence, winner of the Gr3 HSH Princess Charlene Starling Stakes in the Varsfontein silks.
Gr3 HSH Princess Charlene Starling Stakes winner Due Diligence (Pic – JC Photos)
Promisefrommyheart’s first foal, the winning Jallad filly My Guiding Star, also returned to the Varsfontein paddocks and counts amongst her six winners Gr3 Flamboyant Stakes victress Hashtagyolo, stakes-placed Allez Moris, as well as Gr2 Debutante third La Revere.
The latter, a daughter of Var, produced Gr3 Protea Stakes hero Karangetang as her first foal.
Promisefrommyheart’s last foal, the Var filly Vermentino, never raced due to a cleft palate but was retained for breeding and visited resident standout Gimmethegreenlight first time round, the result of which the East Cape Fillies Nursery winner and Gr2 Sceptre Stakes runner-up Favorita.
As regards Secret Pact, she ended up a dual Gr1 producer. Her Western Winter daughter Covenant was retained by Varsfontein and proved her mettle as a three-year-old, with victories in the Gr1 Majorca Stakes, the Gr2 Southern Cross Stakes and Gr2 Sceptre Stakes, a race she won again at four.
Now a valued member of the farm’s broodmare band, she is the dam of a three stakes performers to date. T
o Var, she produced Gr1 Tsogo Sun Gold Medallion runner-up Varallo, a subsequent winner in Hong Kong. A mating with Captain Al yielded her first stakes winner, Erik The Red, who in his finest hour, stormed to victory in the Gr2 Cape Merchants at the expense of Rio Querari, the season’s Champion Sprinter.
Erik The Red too has made his home in the Varsfontein stallion barn, with his first crop of runners set to hit the tracks later this season.
Rounding out the trio is Fort Wood daughter Scandola. A stakes-placed winner of three races, she has made a flying start to her broodmare career with her first two foals, Gr2 Debutante Stakes victress Cala Muretta and Gr2-placed Gimme’s Lassie, both by Gimmethegreenlilght.
But back to Mascherina’s dam Justthewayyouare, her genetic make-up combines the blood of superior broodmares Fairy Bridge (dam of Sadler’s Wells), Fall Aspen (dam of Fort Wood), as well as our own Soho Secret, who features as her third dam. A recipe for success. Varsfontein will offer her most recent foal, the Vercingetorix colt Just Now at the upcoming BSA August 2YO Sale.
The purchase of Secret Pact all those years ago proved an inspired one, considering that at last count, no less than sixteen of her descendants have joined the stakes winning ranks, no mean feat.
Needless to say, with the majority of the fillies retained and three male descendants doing stallion duties, Varsfontein looks guaranteed to reap handsome rewards from this prized family for many years to come.
