Former Horse Of The Year and seven times South African champion sire Jet Master has been well to the fore in pedigrees of feature race winners at Turffontein the past two weekends.
Last Saturday, Jet Master’s son Pomodoro was responsible for Gr1 Wilgerbosdrift SA Fillies Classic winner Return Flight, while Jet Master also rates as the broodmare sire of the same day’s G1 SA Classic winner Hawwaam.
Return Flight – Pomodoro daughter won the Gr1 SA Fillies Classic last weekend (Pic – JC Photos)
While Return Flight has already one Equus title to her name – she was last season’s Champion 2YO Filly, Hawwaam’s top class dam Halfway To Heaven looks likely to claim her own title this year, with the former Prix du Cap winner, she is also dam of 2019 Gr1 Sun Met winner Rainbow Bridge (Ideal World), looking a deserving winner of the Broodmare Of The Year award.
Tellingly perhaps, Jet Master’s name is found in the pedigrees of South Africa’s last two Champion 2YO Fillies, with Return Flight being sired by Pomodoro and Lady In Black (Equus Champion of 2016-2017) having been produced by the Jet Master mare Mystery Dame.
Master Of My Fate daughter Basadi Faith – runaway winner of the Listed Ruffian Stakes (Pic – JC Photos)
Sarah Whitelaw writes that Jet Master’s name was once again found in the pedigrees of Turffontein black type winners this weekend, with his impressive son Master Of My Fate the sire of Saturday’s Listed Ruffian Stakes winner Basadi Faith – her sire’s first stakes winner from his second crop, and Listed Derby Trial winner Gift For The Gap, respectively.
A winner of six of only eight starts, Master Of My Fate has made an excellent start to his stud career, with other notable performers to have emerged from his first crop – now 3 – including multiple graded stakes winning millionaire Twist Of Fate, Kenyan star Silverstone Air and the above mentioned Gift For The Gap.
Pomodoro son Cirillo wins CTS 1200 (Pic – Chase Liebenberg Photography)
His paternal half-brother Pomodoro is also looking promising, with his first crop also including R4 million plus earner Cirillo and the very smart Royal Italian.
Master Of My Fate (by individual winners) and Pomodoro (by prize money) had previously been South Africa’s Leading First Crop Sires of 2017-2018, while another son Skitt Skizzle, who has been represented by just six runners thus far, is responsible for 2018 Listed Secretariat Stakes winner Cordillera.
Pomodoro went close to landing another prize when his 2yo son Immeasurable ran second in the Klawervlei Farm Sale Stakes at Durbanville on Saturday.
Not surprisingly, perhaps, given his own remarkable record at stud, breeders have been quick to latch on to using sons of Jet Master at stud.
The eight time Gr1 winner has been represented in South Africa by stallion sons Master Of My Fate, Pomodoro, Lance, Divine Jet, Ravishing, Jayyed, Royal Air Force, Divine Jet, Skitt Skizzle, Diesel Jet, and Sudden Storm in recent times.
It is hard to think of any other locally bred stallion with such a large number of sons, who succeeded over a wide range of trips on the racetrack, to have entered the South African stallion band.
Champion South African sire on seven occasions, Jet Master sired 75 black type winners from 658 runners (or 11% of his runners won stakes races), with his 22 individual Gr1 winners headed by the Equus Champions Pocket Power, J J The Jet Plane, Yorker, Mythical Flight, In The Fast Lane and Past Master.
The Champion Jet Master
His success in the Met has been unparalled in recent years, with Jet Master featuring not only as the broodmare sire of Rainbow Bridge, but also as the sire of Pocket Power, River Jetez and Past Master, who, between them, won the then J&B Met five times from 2007 -2011.
His growing success as a broodmare sire looks set to continue, and Jet Master is currently South Africa’s Leading Broodmare Sire for 2018-2019 by stakes earned. At the time of writing, Jet Master mares had been represented by six black type winners, of nine stakes races, this season with Hawwaam and Rainbow Bridge having been joined by the likes of Sylvan On Fire (Gr3 Yellowwood Handicap), Ronnie’s Candy (Gr3 Starling Stakes) and Platinum Class (Lady’s Bracelet), as stakes winners produced by Jet Master mares in 2018-2019.
The champion’s daughters’ progeny have already earned in excess of R16.673 million this season, and this total looks sure to increase substantially in the coming weeks.
Jet Master is also damsire of one of the Cape’s most talked about two-year-olds in the form of Captain Stealth (Captain Al). The latter put up a most impressive debut recently when romping home by five and a half lengths at Kenilworth and looks a smart sort in the making.
Ebony Flyer – promisng broodmare
Jet Master’s brilliant daughter Ebony Flyer is another by her sire to have made a pleasing start to her stud career. The multiple Gr1 winning half-sister to champion Captain’s Lover has been represented by two runners in South Africa thus far-namely subsequently exported Gr3 Cape Classic third Cot Campbell and Egoli Mile runner up Captain Of Tortuga.
Ebony Flyer’s own sister Cupid has also done well at stud – she is dam of East Cape Oaks winner Eros’s Girl and the smart three-year-old Vardy – who has already earned over R870 000 in prize money.
