Winning Trainer: Seb D’Aquino
Trainer Seb D’Aquino received some compensation after being kicked in the face by one of his charges last week, when his Soar With Eagles filly Queen Katya stormed away to win the R90 000 TBA Silver Slipper at Borrowdale on Sunday.
The 1800m race is the second leg of the Triple Tiara, and attracted a quality but disappointing field of only five 3yo fillies.
Queen Katya had run second behind Skoentjies in the first leg of the Triple Tiara, the Fillies Classic , run on 27 January.
Visiting jockey Nooresh Juglall took Belo Horizonte up to lead from Queen Katya, Do Me Right, Little Chikitita and Marumbala.
Into the home straight Belo Horizonte came under pressure as Lance Pagel sent Queen Katya down the centre of the track into the lead, which started looking a touch too early as Do Me Right and Marumbala started their challenges.
But showing fight and resillience, Queen Katya kept finding more and went on to win by a length in a time of 116secs. She started at 9 to 10.
Winning Jockey: Lance Pagel rode a treble on the day
Bred by Rambavu Park Stud, Queen Katya is by Soar With Eagles out of the Rabah mare, Al Czarina.
She has won 4 of 7 starts and showed a liking for the extra ground, after showing speed when winning her first three starts over 1000m.
Queen Katya was a first winner in January 2012 for Kingmambo stallion, Soar With Eagles, a brother to the more familiar Archipenko, who was trained later in his career by Mike De Kock.
Archipenko and Soar With Eagles both hail from one of the best families in the book.
Their dam Bound was a very good racehorse herself, winning four races and showing excellent stakes form, including when winning the Listed Churchill Downs Breeders’ Cup Handicap and when recording several graded stakes placings, including finishing third in the Grade One Acorn Stakes in 1987.
She bred nine winners of whom Archipenko was the best, but her other stakes performers included not only Soar With Eagles, but the Listed winner Limit. She also bred Liable, a daughter of Seeking The Gold who became the dam of Blame, conqueror of Zenyatta in the 2010 Breeders’ Cup Classic.
Bound visited Kingmambo in both 2002 and 2003.
Soar With Eagles was the result of the first visit and Archipenko was the result of the second. Both, like so many of their distinguished relatives had done over the years, went into training at Ballydoyle.
