Wilgerbosdrift’s proven international Gr1 producing sire Flower Alley opened his South African account with a great double on Saturday, with a winner at Turffontein and Kenilworth.
The 2005 G1 Travers Stakes winner’s first SA runners are 2yo’s this term.
Flower Alley
Sean Tarry had the distinction of opening the Flower Alley account when the Varsfontein bred filly Keep Smiling won over 1200m at her second start. The R575 000 National Yearling Sale graduate is out of the unraced Jallad mare, Queen Of All.
Just under an hour later, Dean Kannemeyer saddled the double when the R50 000 National 2yo Sale graduate Rille, bred by Mauritzfontein and Wilgerbosdrift, won on debut over 1200m at Kenilworth. She is out of the three-time winning ich Man’s Gold mare, Plata Perana.
Keagan De Melo steers Rille to victory over Veld Flower (Randall Simons) in the Kenilworth second race (Pic – Chase Liebenberg Photography)
Flower Alley, a son of US champion sire Distorted Humor, was an exceptional racehorse who earned over $2.5 million in prize money.
His five wins included four graded successes – the Travers Stakes, Gr2 Jim Dandy Stakes, Gr2 Lane’s End Stakes, and Gr3 Salvator Mile, with Flower Alley also running second, to Horse Of The Year Saint Liam, in the 2005 Gr1 Breeders’ Cup Classic.
Dean Kannemeyer Racing assistant David Lilley and co-owner Clinton George lead their winner in (Pic – Chase Liebenberg Photography)
Retired to stud in Kentucky, the half-brother to a pair of Gr1 winners, and from the same family as the great sire Lyphard, Flower Alley currently has 40 black type performers to his name –headed by Gr1 Kentucky Derby/Gr1 Preakness Stakes winning champion I’ll Have Another.
Flower Alley sold 20 yearlings at last week’s National Yearling Sale with a top price of R350 000 paid by Paul Peter for a colt out of an SA Oaks winning daughter of Fort Wood and multiple Gr1 winning champion Ilha Da Vitoria.
