Bloodstock agent John Freeman not only owns a share of the L’Ormarin’s Queen’s Plate and J&B Met winner Futura, but is in the rare positon of managing both the first and second placed stallions on the current national sires log, Dynasty and Trippi respectively.

Freeman also manages Captain Al, who is right up there in fifth place on the log.

He purchased Dynasty as a yearling and was later responsible for syndicating both him and Captain Al.

He has shares in all three of the above-mentioned sires.

Freeman recalled, “Dynasty has extremely well balanced proportions and superb looks and temperament. If you had to make a mould of how a stallion ought to look, he would be it. He also has incredible movement.”

Freeman said about the now four-year-old colt Futura, “He is very much his father’s son. The most valuable asset Dynasty passes on to his progeny are his elastic stride and his heart.”

Dynasty, a 1999-born colt by the late great Fort Wood, was trained by Dean Kannemeyer and won nine of his twelve starts. He won four Gr 1s in successive races in 2003, the Cape Derby, the South African Guineas, the Daily News 2000 and the Vodacom Durban July.

Freeman, in recalling the purchase of Dynasty, began, “I was a great admirer of Fort Wood, his progeny were so outstanding you couldn’t miss them.”

However, Dynasty’s grandsire Commodore Blake was considered an off putting point for all except Freeman.

He said, “People didn’t understand Commodore Blake, so Dynasty was hard to assess. Nobody knew that Commodore Blake was trained by Sir

Michael Stoute, who told me the horse could run very well. He had a timeform rating of 123. He was imported by the Bloemfontein-based Jane Wessels so I knew the horse well as I am a third generation racing man and the racing community used to be small. Commodore Blake only averaged 15 foals per crop in a short stud career in South Africa. But the key to Dynasty is that Commodore Blake was by the English Derby winner Blakeney out of Ribamba, who was a half-sister to the classic winner Bruni (who won the St. Leger by ten lengths). Commodore Blake’s grandam is a close genetic relative of Horse Chestnut. I liked the pedigree and it has proven to be good.”

Freeman recalled that even prominent owner Jack Mitchell, who is today one of Dynasty’s biggest supporters at the sales, had decided to “pass” when offered a share in Dynasty after the yearling sales, because although he loved the horse he was not sure about the Commodore Blake angle. Today Mitchell has a share in both Futura and another top Dynasty colt, the Equus Horse Of The Year Legislate.

Dynasty was owned during his racing career by John Newsome’s Fieldspring Racing, who also owned the champions Free My Heart and Rabiya.

Freeman was Fieldspring’s trusted bloodstock agent in South Africa and he recalled that there was once an offer for Dynasty after his July win of an incredible US$5 million. The prospective purchaser could not believe that this amount could be turned down for a South African-bred and Freeman had replied, “It’s simple, he’s not for sale because we want to breed with him.”

This turned out to be a wise decision, because his stud value would far surpass that figure today.

The Highlands Stud-based Dynasty recently broke the record for the highest priced horse sold at a South African sale when a Maine Chance Farms-bred yearling colt, out of a full-sister to the champion sire Silvano, was knocked down for R5,2 million.

The top former trainer Herman Brown Senior, respected for his vast knowledge of thoroughbreds, commented that in 63 years of attending sales he had never seen a better yearling. He said that this Dynasty colt had resembled a three-year-old and also spoke of his excellent legs.

The Drakenstein Stud-based Trippi remains the most expensive thoroughbred ever imported to South Africa and Freeman is adamant that a stallion of such quality would never have been landed had it not been for the financial crisis in the USA.

Trippi’s numbers are now the equal of Dynasty and his success this year lies in his amazing three-year-olds, the best of whom is the Maine Chance Paddock Stakes and Klawervlei Majorca Stakes winning-filly Inara. Trippi is leading the three-year-old national log.

Freeman said that initially Trippi’s progeny had been viewed as “forward” types and he consequently broke the South African record for having the highest number of two-year-old stakes winners with his first crop.

Freeman said, “That was initially his undoing, but trainers now understand not to rush them and give them the time they deserve and the rewards are coming.”