It proved to be yet another a stellar weekend for Drakenstein Stud on the racetrack and marked significant pedigree updates for a number of its resident broodmares, one of which its champion Oh Susanna.
Oh Susanna beats Last Winter to win the Met in 2018 (Pic – Hamish Niven Photography)
The country’s Horse of the Year in 2018, she came up trumps with her very first foal, the three-year-old filly Little Suzie, who joined the stakes winners ranks with a scintillating victory in the Gr2 Woolavington 2000 at Hollywoodbets Greyville.
By the stud’s formidable flagship stallion Trippi, Little Suzie not only emulated her illustrious dam Oh Susanna (who won this race seven years ago), she also continued her owner/breeder’s stranglehold on the race as the fourth consecutive Drakenstein homebred winner and fifth overall.
To add to the occasion, the female family simultaneously received a transcontinental boost when Oh Susanna’s English-bred half-sister Marksman Queen carried the Drakenstein silks to victory in the Listed Keertana Stakes at historical Churchill Downs. A three-time winner in Britain last season, she too notched up her first full black type success under none other than Frankie Dettori.
Significantly, Oh Susanna has now joined a growing throng of stakes winning Drakenstein-raced mares whose progeny have emulated their dams on the track, and let it be said, there are an enviable number of those roaming the stud’s paddocks.
Snowdance wins the 2018 Majorca Stakes (Pic – Hamish Niven Photography)
For instance, there is Snowdance, a dual Gr1 winner of the World Sports Betting Fillies Guineas and Klawervlei Majorca Stakes, who made a dream start to her broodmare career when her first foal, the Lancaster Bomber colt Snow Pilot, captured the Hollywoodbets Gr1 Cape Guineas.
Her second foal Symphony In White, also boasts Gr1 black type, courtesy of a third in last season’s Gr1 Allan Robertson Championship. She returns to the Pietermaritzburg track on Saturday in a bid to give her owner/breeder a coveted first victory in the Gr1 South African Fillies Sprint.
Jet Belle won the Gr2 Gold Bracelet for Drakenstein and Colin Bird. Also a dual winner of the Gr3 Poinsettia Stakes and multiple Gr1-placed, this daughter of Jet Master became a Gr1 producer with her second foal, the Silvano filly Silver Darling, who captured the Woolavington 2000 two years ago. A return to Silvano resulted in Kenilworth Cup third Groovejet.
Drakenstein is blessed to count numerous daughters of Trippi amongst its broodmare band, one of which, homebred Lesedi La Rona, won the Listed Perfect Promise Sprint and became a stakes producer with her second foal, the Gimmethegreenlight filly Green Diamond.
Second in the Listed Ruffian Stakes on debut, she broke her maiden next time out with a 6.50 length romp against male rivals in the Gr3 Protea Stakes and again had their measure in the Gr2 SA Nursery. Not surprisingly, she recently earned the Highveld award as Champion Juvenile filly of the season and will again square off against the boys in this weekend’s Gr1 Gold Medallion at Hollywoodbets Scottsville.
This is a family which has served Drakenstein with distinction, both locally and overseas. Shingwedzi, a Trippi half-sister to Lesedi La Rona’s dam Barberton Daisy, finished third to Jet Belle in the Gr2 Gold Bracelet and is now based at Drakenstein’s British division, Cayton Park.
Her Ed Dunlop-trained son, aptly named Skukuza, added to the stud’s phenomenal weekend when he cruised to victory in the Emerald Mile Premier Handicap at the Curragh on the Irish 2000 Guineas undercard.
Yet another stakes winning Trippi homebred mare is One Fine Day.
Twice Gr1-placed as a juvenile when runner-up in the Gr1 Golden Horseshoe and third in the Gr1 Allan Robertson Championship, she went on to capture the Gr3 Umzimkhulu Stakes at three. She too, has transferred her racetrack prowess to the paddocks and counts the talented Drakenstein juvenile One Fine Winter amongst her brood. Campaigned exclusively in stakes company, this daughter of What A Winter has run three times for a win in the Gr3 Pretty Polly Stakes and seconds in both the Gr2 SA Fillies Nursery and Listed Storm Bird Stakes.
She will take her place in the Gr1 Allan Robertson Championship on Saturday where she will bid to make up for dam’s defeat in 2014.
Trippi’s stakes-placed daughter Se Agabor also struck with her first foal, the Kingsbarns filly Gabor. She became the first Gr1 winner for her short-lived sire when she lifted the Gr1 Thekwini Stakes at two and has since bolstered the family fortunes as the dam of this season’s Gr3 Godolphin Barb third Malmesbury Missile.
Trippi also features as the sire of stakes-placed Trip To India, who produced as her first foal the fleet-footed Sheela, who made a spectacular winning debut in the Listed Storm Bird Stakes, where she ran her male rivals off their feet to score by the best part of four lengths and immediately followed up with another splendid win in the Gr2 SA Nursery over subsequent Senor Santa winner Smorgasbord.
Drakenstein raced and bred One Fine Winter runs in the Gr1 Allan Robertson Championship on Saturday (Pic – JC Photos)
Third in the Gr1 Allan Robertson, she matured into a formidable sprinter and again blitzed male rivals in the Listed Golden Loom Handicap at Turffontein. Her half-sister Wild Wild Green won this season’s Listed Heineken Summer Juvenile Stakes and together with One Fine Winter, makes up Drakenstein’s two-pronged attack on this weekend’s Allan Robertson.
Although a black type victory eluded Philanthropist homebred Sail, she returned to Drakenstein with an enviable string of Graded stakes places to her name, most notably thirds in both the Gr1 Thekwini Stakes and the Gr2 Daisy Fillies Guineas.
She became a stakes producer this season as the dam of the smart three-year-old Sail The Seas, who chased home Eight On Eighteen in the Gr1 Cape Derby before turning the tables in the Gr2 World Sports Betting Guineas at Hollywoodbets Greyville.
Speaking of Eight On Eighteen, he too is a product of the Drakenstein paddocks and racked up a third Gr1 success with an emphatic victory in the Daily News 2000, just thirty-five minutes after Little Suzie’s Woolavington win.
While his dam Sempre Libre never raced, she boasts impeccable bloodlines as a daughter of Captain Al and the phenomenal blue hen mare Mystic Spring, the dam also of champions Rabiya and Bela-Bela and ancestress of abovementioned Snowdance and Snow Pilot as well as champion All Is Secret and Gr1 winner The Secret Is Out.
As for Oh Susanna and her stakes winning paddock pals, not only are they continuing to add to the burgeoning Drakenstein trophy cabinet through their progeny, they are also establishing powerful female dynasties which should serve the stud well in years to come.
