WHAT a month it has been for Gimmethegreenlight!
As he homes in on a first General Sires title, the log leader was quick off the mark with a superb exacta in the Gr.1 Premier's Champions Challenge where multiple Champion son Got The Greenlight led home the three-year-old Second Base (pictured above). The winning margin of about a length was deceptive, for Joey Soma's four-year-old was never in danger of defeat and finished off his race with panache.
The colt now heads straight to Greyville as the ante-post favourite for the Gr.1 Vodacom Durban July and will bid to reverse last year's second behind Varsfontein graduate, Belgarion.
A great run too from Second Base, who was facing his elders off two classic places, a second in the Gr.1 SA Classic and a third in the Gr.1 SA Derby.

She's A Keeper shows up the boys in the 1900.

Four-year-old daughter She's A Keeper also kept her July dreams alive with a game win in the Gr.2 World Sports Betting 1900 at Greyville.
Fresh off her first stakes success in The Scarlet Lady, Rob Knuppe's homebred passed her biggest test to date when she comprehensively defeated male rivals to become the first female winner of this important 'July" pointer since Espumanti took the honours seven years ago.
Ridgemont homebred Iris rounded out her sire's stakes treble when travelling to Fairview in search of black type. It was mission accomplished, as she came home clear of a competitive field in the Listed Milkwood Stakes.
Gimmethegreenlight's progeny also weighed in with some fine stakes places. Our homebred Favorita contested the Gr.3 Poinsettia Stakes at Scottsville and despite running into traffic problems, she finished with a rush to get up for second, a half-length behind the winner. An excellent prep run for the Gr.1 SA Fillies Sprint!
Juvenile son Cosmic Highway, who put his unbeaten record on the line in the Gr.3 Godolphin Barb Stakes, was not disgraced when he ran on to finish third. He will live to fight another day!

DON'T LOOK BACK STRIKES GOLD

Gold Bowl glory for Don't Look Back.

VARSFONTEIN-BRED Don't Look Back made his breakthrough at stakes level with a brave half-length victory in Turffontein's Gr.3 Gold Bowl.
Shaken up at the quarter mark, the son of Judpot took the lead and showed true grit to hold off a challenging Smoking Hot.
Maturity has brought out the best in the five-year-old, who has now run up a remarkable sequence of six wins from eight starts since making his debut for the St John Gray stable in January, whilst his two placed efforts also includes a third in the Listed Aquanaut Handicap.

MASTER OF MY FATE'S CLASSIC FILLIES
MASTER Of My Fate's daughters Scented Mistress and Freestate Star made their presence felt in classic company this past month.
Runner-up in both The Scarlet Lady and East Coast Cup, Scented Mistress earned her first Gr.1 black type when she chased home Triple Tiara winner War Of Athena and Princess Calla in the Gr.1 Woolavington 2000.
Freestate Star, meanwhile, had made the transition to Graded stakes level with aplomb. Her storming third in the Gr.2 Fillies Guineas was a cracking effort, considering only Gr.1 winner Captain's Ransom and Princess Calla proved her superior!

CAUSE FOR CELEBRATION
OUR clients Alec and the Honourable Gillian Foster also enjoyed a purple patch this past month as the breeders of a stakes winning duo foaled and raised at Varsfontein.
Whatever Next , a son of What A Winter, is fast emerging as Port Elizabeth's leading juvenile following his stakes double in the East Cape Nursery and Dahlia Plate.
He is the first foal out of homebred Petala, who carried the  Foster silks to victory in the Gr.3 Kenilworth Fillies Nursery. While she showed plenty of toe, her half-brother Doublemint displayed his prowess as a Gr.2/3 winning stayer. Such are the vagaries of breeding!
Speaking of stayers, Dynasty four-year-old Black Knap closed out the month on a high note with a hard-fought head victory in the Gr.3 Lonsdale Stirrup Cup at Greyville. Beaten just half a length when second in the Sledgehammer, he stripped razor sharp on the day and outduelled Matterhorn in a humdinger finish to the 2400m event. Remarkably, he also made amends for half-brother Strathdon's longhead defeat in the 2018 renewal.
Black Knap's wins are not for the faint-hearted, for earlier this season, he claimed the Listed Settlers Trophy in similar fashion when outduelling Bayberry by a neck. 
He is clearly blooming in KZN and should make his voice heard in the remaining staying races of the season. Don't be surprised if he becomes his owners' second Gold Cup winner!

At the end of a rare tussle, it's Black Knap, by a head.

A GROWING DYNASTY
WE just cannot seem to get enough of broodmare extraordinaire Mystic Spring, one of South Africa's famous broodmares.
Her daughters have become priceless commodities, hence we are over the moon to have added her Gr.1 producing daughter Secret Of Victoria (Goldkeeper) to our broodmare band. We welcome the grey to Varsfontein, where she will join her Captain Al daughter Canukeepitsecret, a stakes winning full sister to champion sprinter All Is Secret and the Gr.1 winner The Secret Is Out.


One of seven stakes winners out of her revered dam, Secret Of Victoria showed immense promise as a juvenile, winning the Gr.3 Strelitzia Stakes before running second in the Gr.1 Allan Robertson. Disaster struck when a fractured sesamoid sent her to the sidelines for nine months, however she returned as good as ever to win the Olympic Duel Stakes, before adding both the Gr.2 Southern Cross and Gr.3 Sceptre Stakes at four.
Secret Of Victoria is carrying to Vercingetorix and as her three stakes winners were sired by Captain Al, she is already earmarked to visit his exciting son Erik The Red.
Over the years, we have actively collected members from this celebrated family and also own Secret Of Victoria's stakes-winning half-sisters, the Champion Bela-Bela (Dynasty) and Touch The Sky (Jet Master), as well as multiple stakes winner Victorian Secret (Captain Al), who is out of their half-sister, the Gr.3 winner Spring Lilac (Joshua Dancer).
In our quest for the family, we also purchased Mystic Spring's final foal, a filly by Wylie Hall at last year's 2YO sale. We have named her Monroe Spring and she will race in the Varsfontein silks before joining her family members in the paddocks.