Double delight: Erik The Red and Malmoos complete a Varsfontein Gr.2 double

THAT the 2016 Varsfontein crop is fast proving to be a vintage one was underlined when three-year-olds Malmoos and Erik The Red provided us with a fine Gr.2 double at Kenilworth.
Victorious in last month’s Gr.3 Graham Beck Stakes, Malmoos travelled down from Johannesburg and continued his rampant form in the Gr.2 Concorde Cup over 1600m. Mike de Kock’s colt, who races in Sheikh Hamdan’s blue and white silks, once again showed his superiority with a handy half-length victory over an unfamiliar left-hand track. With that experience under his belt, the unbeaten son of Captain Al should be cherry-ripe for the Gr.1 Cape Guineas, where he will aim to become his late sire’s third winner of this important mile classic.
Barely half an hour later, his paternal half-brother Erik The Red did what he loves best, winning yet another feature race. The sole three-year-old in the line-up for the Gr.2 Cape Merchants, our handsome homebred quickened away at the finish to notch up a fifth stakes win and become the first three-year-old in 22 years to claim the 1200m dash!
Malmoos and Erik The Red are just two of a mushrooming legacy of talented performers descended from our fine matron Secret Pact, herself a daughter of Broodmare of the Year, Soho Secret.
Erik The Red is out of Secret Pact’s Gr.1 winning daughter Covenant, whose half-sister, the Champion Promisefrommyheart, is the grandam of Malmoos. Covenant, a winner of the Gr.1 Majorca Stakes in the Varsfontein silks, is also dam of Gr.1 Gold Medallion second Varallo and the Listed-placed filly Scandola.

ERIK’S FUTURE DECIDED
Earmarked as our next stallion from the day he made a winning debut, Erik The Red’s fine Merchants victory rubber-stamped the decision to syndicate him for stud duties.
We gave the mandate to renowned stallion manager John Freeman and we are thrilled to report that Erik was fully syndicated virtually overnight. Breeders from all of the country have snapped up the available shares, which should ensure him a wide cross-section of mares.
Erik will stay in training with the aim of adding a coveted Gr.1 success to his already impressive resume. He has a combination of looks, pedigree and race record that gives him a license to be a successful stallion. That we are super excited would be putting it mildly!

FILLIES MILE A VARSFONTEIN AFFAIR

Gee For Go opens her stakes account in the Fillies Mile.

The Gr.3 Fillies Mile at Turffontein proved a triumph for our stallions who's progeny finished 1st and 2nd while we bred the 3rd filly past the post. Gimmethegreenlight’s daughter Gee For Go led home the Master Of My Fate filly Miss Elegance while the Varsfontein bred Starling Stakes winner Due Diligence (Silvano), yet another fine member of our 2016 crop and from the same family as Malmoos and Erik The Red, finished 3rd.
From the family of Horse of the Year Celtic Grove, Gee For Go is Gimmethegreenlight’s 26th individual stakes winner and her victory went some way to her sire regaining his spot at the top of the General Sires List over Master Of My Fate.

AFRICAN ADVENTURE ROUTS RIVALS

MASTER OF MY FATE ended the month on a high when his son African Adventure came home lonely in the Listed Racing Association Stakes over a lung bursting 3200m at Turffontein. Finding another gear close home, Joey Soma’s charge lost the

opposition and powered away to score by more than seven lengths in testing conditions.
It was a case of sweet revenge, as the gelding turned the tables on runner-up Odd Rob, who had defeated him by less than a length in last month’s Listed Java Handicap.
Hats off to John Slade, who bred African Adventure from the Fort Wood mare African Badger, an own sister to Dubai stakes winner Mr Brock.

GIMMETHEGREENLIGHT LEADS THE WAY

GIMMETHEGREENLIGHT proved all the rage at this year’s National 2YO Sale, siring two of the three million Rand lots, including the R1.2-million sales topper.
Sold on the second day, that honour fell to the colt Lamborghreeni (pictured above), with Team G Racing winning the battle for the Danika Stud-consigned son of Listed-placed Trippi mare San Trip.
The second of the million Rand duo was our colt East Of The Sun, who was snapped up by Form Bloodstock for an even million. Out of Master Of My Fate’s half-sister My Guiding Star, he is a half-brother to Gr.3 winner Hashtagyolo.
Master Of My Fate also enjoyed a solid sale, eight of his youngsters selling for R200,000 or more. His top lot, a R325,000 colt consigned by Boland Stud and grooms, will race from the Ashburton stables of Duncan Howells.
Overall, we were thrilled to have sold all of our draft at a sale which ended with gains all round. The aggregate rose by 22 per cent, while the average and median were up by 19 per cent and 17 per cent respectively.
We thank all our buyers and wish them the very best of luck with their purchases!
 
MEET OUR LATEST ACQUISITION

The adage, you can’t have too much of a good thing, certainly rang true when we purchased this priceless filly at the National 2YO Sale.
By Redoute’s Choice stallion Wylie Hall, she is the final foal out of revered Broodmare of the Year Mystic Spring, whose seven stakes performed offspring include our Champion Bela-Bela and Touch The Sky. Both are members of our broodmare band, as are Mystic Spring’s stakes winning granddaughters Victorian Secret and Amy Johnson. For now, the as yet unnamed filly is back on the farm and will probably go into training early next year.

GROWING UP QUICKLY …

Proud mom Bela-Bela pictured with her second foal, a filly by Gimmethegreenlight. Bela is once again in foal to the son of More Than Ready.