Hoedspruit’s victory in the Gr3 Legal Eagle Stakes last Saturday not only confirmed his talent. The three-year-old’s success is also a remarkable achievement for his sire Legislate.
Found to be sub-fertile as a stallion, the champion son of Dynasty has given new meaning to the adage ‘ quality over quantity’, Hoedspruit being the sixth stakes performer and fourth stakes winner to emerge from his first crop, which numbered no more than 26 foals.
Team Snaith cool Hoedspruit down after his smart win (Pic- Chase Liebenberg)
Through Monday, 23 have run and 15 have won, which translates into an impressive strike rate of 65% winners to runners.
Although the former Horse of the Year excelled over a mile up to 2200m, he is proving to be a versatile sire as well, his progeny capable of winning both long and short.
That two of his stakes winners are sprinters comes as no surprise since his dam, the fleet-footed Champers, never won beyond 1200m, while her half-brother Black Skimmer posted a career-best in the Gr2 Post Merchants.
In addition, grandam Classy Play, a winner up to 1400m, is a Jungle Cove own sister to the Gr1 SA Fillies Sprint winner, Jungle Class.
Legislate was off the mark with his first stakes winner when Hoedspruit’s stable companion Speed Machine scored an emphatic two-length victory over subsequent Cape Guineas winner Russian Rock in the Listed Sophomore Sprint.
Speed Machine. (Pic- Chase Liebenberg)
His dam Tamora is a Western Winter grandaughter of Lammerskraal Broodmare of the Year Fashing, the dam of Horse of the Year Yard-Arm.
Drakenstein homebred Zimbaba likewise flashed an impressive turn of foot with a 3.50-length drubbing of Celestial Love in the Listed Swallow Stakes over 1160m, no mean feat considering the runner-up went on to claim both the Gr3 Man O’War and Gr2 Camellia Stakes! Zimbaba is out of Pin Turn, a daughter of the brilliantly fast Pivotal and the incomparable Ipi Tombe.
Fellow Drakenstein homebred Swazi Queen is Legislate’s first classic winner. She prevailed in a humdinger finish to the Listed East Cape Oaks at Fairview and, like Speed Machine, is out of a daughter of Western Winter.
Legislate daughter Swazi Queen wins the East Cape Oaks (Pic – Pauline Herman)
Her dam, Barberton Daisy won three times up to 2500m and ran second in the Listed East Coast Handicap. In addition to Swazi Queen, she is also dam of two stakes-performed Trippi fillies, Lesedi La Rona, winner of the Listed Perfect Promise Sprint and Gr3 Flamboyant Stakes runner-up Impala Lily. Incidentally, Swazi Queen won the Oaks six years after Barberton Daisy’s Gr2-placed Trippi half-sister Shingwedzi suffered a shorthead defeat in the 2000m race.
This is where things become interesting. Hoedspruit is out of Londalozi, who is an own sister to Shingwedzi and a half-sister to Barberton Daisy. That means two of Legislate’s stakes winners share the Drakenstein import Buffalo Dance as their grandam.
A daughter of Sadler’s Wells, she showed little on the track, but is a half-sister to French champion and Prix de Diane victress Bright Sky (Wolfhound). Buffalo Dance, who was imported by Drakenstein at age eight is now expanding her legacy, for Barberton Daisy’s half-sister Bright Wolf (Wolfhound) is the dam of Philanthropist filly Raven Girl, a winner of the Zimbabwe Oaks and that country’s champion three-year-old filly.
She added another four wins in her birth country before joining the Drakenstein broodmare band.
Londalozi placed at three and was acquired by Wilgerbosdrift at the 2017 Cape Mare Sale while carrying Hoedspruit. She is also the dam of a juvenile filly by Flower Alley.
Legislate : Dynasty – Champers (Restructure)
Given his fertility issues, Legislate was put back into training at age seven having spent the first two seasons at Drakenstein Stud.
After winning a barrier trial at Scottsville, he was pulled up in the Gr2 Post Merchants, his sole official start and he was permanently retired, this time to Cheveley Stud.
Stud master Vaughan Koster was thrilled to have the horse back at his place of birth, especially as his yearlings on the farm were outstanding. “That played a large part in bringing him to Cheveley,” he remarked.
Having sired just 15 foals in his next three crops, Legislate will always find himself on the back foot in a game where numbers are of prime importance as regards a stallion’s representation on the track.
Vaughan nevertheless remains upbeat: “He covered 37 mares in 2020, of which he got 32 in foal, which is a very impressive conception rate of 86%. I was over the moon with that, considering his fertility, but we found a way to manage him. We will try to get 50 mares to him this year, so let’s hope we can pick up his numbers. Things are looking very positive with the horse and he looks well above average.”
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