Gr1 Cape Fillies Guineas Honour Roll
The marriage of fast horses & fine wines has proven a happy one in every respect for the magnificent Avontuur Estate. The Somerset West based thoroughbred breeding opera-tion received another shot in the arm this week with the announcement of a substantial stakes increase for the Gr1 Cape Fillies Guineas.
The Avontuur Estate Cape Fillies Guineas joins the Paddock Stakes as South Africa’s premier race for fillies and will also be run for a stake of R1 million. It is scheduled for Saturday 7 December 2013. Maine Chance Farms followed the Avontuur lead of prestige branding by association when sponsoring the Paddock Stakes for the first time this year.
The honour roll of the Cape Fillies Guineas over the past few decades reflects the quality and brilliance expected of racing at the very top level. That is both in terms of the racers and the men that guide their careers. Recently crowned Cape champion trainer Justin Snaith has won the event three times and leads Mike Bass with two winners this century.
Eric Sands, Joey Ramsden, Brett Crawford, Stephen Page and Glen Kotzen have each won it once. Along with visiting trainer Mike De Kock, who broke his duck last year. Since 2000, the Cape Fillies Guineas has played a major role in determining Equus Awards honours. The 2011 winner, Princess Victoria, was subsequently named champion 3yo filly, as were Hoeberg (2000) and Sun Classique (2006).
In 2010, Igugu who ran second to Ebony Flyer in a memorable Cape Fillies Guineas duel, not only took home the top 3yo filly award, but was also named Horse of the Year. Two years earlier, Mother Russia ran second – and she was subsequently named Equus Champion Older Mare in 2010.
The Cape Fillies Guineas has also been won by a number of fillies, who have carried our flag with pride and success overseas. These include familiar names like Perfect Promise, Captain’s Lover and the Mike Bass star, Sun Classique.
Perfect Promise made history when winning the Gr1 C F Orr Stakes at Caulfield Racecourse, Melbourne in February 2006.
One of an extraordinary fifteen Gr1 winners for her sire Red Ransom, Mike De Kock’s unbeaten Rumya won the 2012 renewal and was the first import to win the prestigious classic since 2006 – when Aussie bred Sun Classique took first place in the Cape’s first Gr1 event of the new season.
Fuji Kiseki, an unbeaten son of legendary sire Sunday Silence, features in the pedigrees of both Rumya (broodmare sire) and Sun Classique (sire).
Few stallions anywhere have compiled such a potent record globally speaking as the now deceased Red Ransom. His progeny have won at the highest level in all of Canada, Australia, Britain, Italy, Dubai, Germany and South Africa.
The sire of Rumya is also becoming an important broodmare sire, and is the damsire of 2012 G1 winner, Termida – interestingly enough a daughter of Avontuur’s exciting new sire Oratorio, who is standing his first season in South Africa this year.
Like Saturday’s Gr3 Champagne Stakes and 2011 Cape Fillies Guineas winner Princess Victoria, Rumya is a descendant of 1972 Epsom Derby winner, and hugely influential sire, Roberto. Princess Victoria is due to visit Silvano. The legacy goes on.
