David Thiselton

The package of mares bought into South Africa by Cape Thoroughbred Sales just over ten years ago included Fastnet Rock mare Little Fastnet. who was in foal to Frankel and the resultant filly was Frankly, dam of Saturday’s Gr 2 Jackpot City Dingaans winner, the Heavenly Blue colt Trust.

The mares were looked after by Klawervlei Stud, who took the progeny to the Sales too.

Frankly fetched R4 million at the Premier Yearling Sale, purchased by an agent who must have been acting on behalf of owners Larry Nestadt, Gary Barber and the late Chris Gerber.

The small filly only won one race, but did display a nice turn of foot.

However, the purchase is now paying dividends, because Frankly is turning out to be a fine broodmare.

Larry Nestadt ended up owning Frankly on his own because Gary Barber pulled out of South African racing and Chris Gerber passed away.

However, he then brought Gary Player and Lindsay Ralphs into the partnership.

Frankly now stands at Ascot Stud in the East Cape, which is where the sire that Larry Nestadt has shares in, Heavenly Blue, stands.

Frankly’s first foal was Courageous by Canford Cliffs and she had one win and 19 places in 34 runs.

Larry raced the Australian-bred Heavenly Blue with Mike de Kock and he won the Gr 1 SA Classic over 1800m among other good performances.

It made sense from a cost point of view for him to send Frankly to Heavenly Blue and the results have been explosive.

Frankly’s second foal, the first produced by Heavenly Blue, was the colt Truth.

He has tremendous pace and has the capacity to stay further, but tends to take a bit of a hold.

He won his first two starts over 1160m and 1400m respectively by 4,25 lengths and 7,25 lengths respectively.

He has not been the luckiest of horses, but has added three more victories since, including the Gr 3 National Currency Sprint over 1100m.

Then along came the third foal, Trust.

Larry pointed out about Trust, “If you look at all of his races, his acceleration is incredible. On debut he looked like he wouldn’t run a place and won. Then in his next start in the Gr 3 Betway Graham Beck over 1400m he was taken out at the start by the eventual winner. He was knocked to the back of the field and he still finished second (with another impressive late burst taking him within 0,60 lengths of the winner). He’s a nice horse, good looking horse, and he’s got an incredible turn of foot.”

Trust showed a fine turn of foot again on Saturday. He was the only horse able to go with Jan Van Goyen when the latter burst into the lead. He then once again showed his ability to produce extra late as he got the better of the tussle for the line and was drawing away at the end, winning by 0,70 lengths with the rest of the field in a different race.

Candice Dawson has trained all of Courageous, Truth and Trust.

Trust will not be traveling to run in the Gr 1 Hollywoodbets Cape Guineas with Larry saying it came too soon after the Dingaans.

Jan Van Goyen is set to run in the Guineas and he will be a good representative of the Highveld three-year-olds.

The Cape three-year-old form has been muddled with the swapping of winners and placings and no standout performers to date.

There could still be horses who will improve and possibly stand out with one of them being the ruling Hollywoodbets Cape Guineas favourite Gimmie Rules. He might have only won a B Stakes event last time, but he was clearly still green and had to come around horses from the back on the Hollywoodbets Kenilworth Winter Course in the 1400m event and yet won effortlessly.

Horses that ran in the Gr 2 Race Coast Cape Punters Cup could still improve with one example being Happy Verse, who had no sort of luck being caught wide without cover in the running and then being squeezed out late.

However, one of the country’s guru racing analysts, Karel Miedema, has not given any three-year-olds high ratings this season.

He was not overly impressed with the Dingaans form and only awarded Trust an ability rating (AR) of 100.

However, as Ashley Parker of Ascot Stud said about Trust, “He is a nice horse who is still inexperienced, but he is learning fast.”

Not many horses can brag they have won the Dingaans on just their third career start, beating an Equus Champion in the process, so Trust looks to be an exciting prospect.

John Koster, who recalled looking after Frankly at Klawervlei, mentioned that Trust’s pedigree had the “reverse cross” of Danehill via Schnitzel on to Galileo that has done so well.

Trust’s next target will likely be the Triple Crown series of the Gr 2 Gauteng Guineas, Gr 1 SA Classic and Gr 1 SA Derby.

Ashley Parker has revealed that Frankly  has a yearling full sister to Trust, who is “magnificent”, and she has a Gimmethegreenlight filly foal at foot. She was covered by Heavenly Blue again this season.

There are many examples of big spending at the Sales being worthwhile in the long run and Larry Nestadt is a deserved beneficiary of Frankly’s early success as a broodmare. Her value and the value of her progeny will be burgeoning.

Meanwhile, Little Fastnet has been standing at Advocate Nigel Riley’s Haversham Stud, having previously been with Maine Chance Farms. Her Jackson filly fetched R100,000 at the BSA National Yearling Sale this year.