CTS offered a once off bonus of R1 million attached to the 2013 Book 2 Sale that would go to the trainer of the horse that had amassed the most stakes earnings by the end of its three-year-old year. The Dennis Drier-trained Gr 1 Tsogo Sun Medallion winner Guiness was thought to have been the highest earning graduate of the sale before Tuesday night on a figure of R425,450.

However, with first and second prizes of R1,250,000 and R500,000 respectively in the sales race, Siren’s Call and Trophy Wife have now left him a long way behind. Siren’s Call has now earned stakes of R1,434,375 and Trophy Wife has earned R677,650. Both fillies will likely be running in forthcoming Johannesburg feature races where they could accumulate further earnings. Guiness, meanwhile, is recuperating well from a successful wind operation and will only be back in training towards the end of this month.

The win was also a boost for Drakenstein Stud as the colt is by their newly acquired stallion Duke Of Marmalade. The trip was thought to be a touch on the sharp side for Moofeed, who is owned by Sheik Mohammed bin Khalida Al Maktoum, so he was allowed to drift out to 20/1.

However, he enjoyed the fast conditions and was up with the pace early. Khumalo then cleverly stole a march at the halfway mark and the colt stayed on well to deny the running on Louis Goosen-trained One Man’s Dream and the flying Sean Tarry-trained Willow Magic by 0,2 lengths and 0,3 lengths respectively.

Willow Magic was all the rage and started at 7/10, but it was his second run after a long layoff and he also had a much tougher task with topweight under handicap conditions than he had last time out. The race should have brought him on and Tarry said his route now will likely be the Gr 2 Senor Santa Handicap over 1200m on April 4 followed by the Gr 1 Computaform Sprint over 1000m on April 25, both at Turffontein.

Siren’s Call’s sire Elusive Fort, who won the Gr 1 SA Derby and Gr 1 Daily News 2000 under Geoff Woodruff, was sold in training to the USA by owner Ebrahim Khan, but injured himself over there and his best effort was a second in a Gr 3.

He consequently had minimal stud value in America and Millenium Stud’s Tony Mincione alerted De Beyer to the opportunity of bringing him home. De Beyer financed and syndicated Elusive Fort and ended as chief shareholder, owning close to half of him. He sends half of his mares to him too. Elusive Fort originally stood at Arc-En-Ciel Stud and his support increased from 40 mares in his first season to 60 in the second and 80 in the third. However, complications following  Arc-En-Ciel’s closure saw him back to 40 mares the following season. The syndicate then decided to move him to Klipdrift Stud and through a mammoth marketing effort as well as the form of the like of Siren’s Call and Elusive Stars on the race track, they were able to close his book at 108 mares last season. Furthermore, De Beyer reported that 90% of these mares are in foal.

Elusive Fort’s progeny appeared on the sales for the first time in 2013.

Siren’s Call (JC Photo)

De Beyer had six of his own-bred horses on the CTS Book 2 Sale of that year, including Siren’s Call and the Dupont colt Forest Fox, who finished fourth in the big race on Tuesday night.

He said, “It was a very tough sale to try and sell fillies and I ended buying back four of them.”

He bought Siren’s Call back for a mere R60,000 and recalled, “That was well below what I thought was a fair price, but anybody could have had her for R80,000!”.

De Beyer wanted to give Elusive Fort some exposure in Johannesburg, so sent two of his progeny, including Siren’s Call to Sean Tarry.

He said, “It came out of the blue, so Sean was surprised but his record speaks for itself. Unfortunately the other Elusive Fort died in  training, but Siren’s Call surprised us by hacking up by 5,5 lengths on debut over 1200m. But it was only when she won a strong Novice Plate over 1600m in her next start that we realised that we could aim her at the Sales race with a winning chance. She then ran second to Majmu in the Gr 3 Starling Stakes and Sean was already saying then that she was looking for 1800m plus. It was perhaps a tactical error to enter her in the Dingaans, but she drew well and we only thought we had Harry’s Son to beat as we didn’t know about Unparalleled yet.

Piere (Strydom) was also committed to Harry’s Son and S’Manga (Khumalo) didn’t know her as well. Sean then decided to give her a break and give her injections, so that she would come into this race fresh. You can see that she struggles to get into a race early enough, but when she gets going she has a devastating kick. The course was running fast so they were all coming around from the wide draws and it was a very rough race, there was a lot of scrimmaging and bunching on the turn and it was like dodgem cars. But Piere rode a fantastic race and she was going away at the line. It was a magnificent ride and you can see why he has ridden 5000 winners. It was great as an owner to win the race, but even better as a breeder and she will now go for the Triple Tiara series.”

Siren’s Call has now earned R1,434,375 in stakes. Her dam, the West Man filly Siren’s Cove, unfortunately died while foaling down a couple of season’s after Siren’s Call was born.

Vaal-based trainer Paul Peter bought Forest Fox for R210,000 for his chief clients GK and MM Nassif and the Hyperpaint Syndicate, but Bernard Kantor as the underbidder was then accepted into the partnership together with Hassen Adams.

De Beyer said, “He was a really good looking yearling. He was reportedly a little unsettled by the lights and has improved so much since gelding that it was really only his third run. . It will be a step up in division in the Guineas and Classic, but he is a super little horse.”

Meanwhile, the yard’s star filly Same Jurisdiction is improving all the time ahead of her engagement in the Gr 2 Wilgerbosdrift Gauteng Guineas on February 28, where she will have a long awaited clash with the mighty Mike de Kock-trained Majmu.

Howells said about Easy Lover’s run, “He ran a very good race, I think he was just beaten by the draw, but these are once in a lifetime races. It was a very rough race and he made up a lot of ground.”

Easy Lover (Nkosi Hlophe)

He praised Randjesfontein-based trainer Stuart Pettigrew, who provided a box and helped take care of Easy Lover during the colt’s stay in Johannesburg.

Howell’s fiancé and assistant trainer Cathy Rymill and one of his chief owners Ian van Schalkwyk short-listed Easy Lover together at the Book 2 Sale. Van Schalkwyk owns him in partnership with GP Stoltz.

Howells said, “He was a very good buy at only R120,000 and has turned out to be one of the best horses from the sale.”

Easy Lover has earned R501,975 in stakes and already has a stakes win to his name, having been an easy winner of the Listed KZN Guineas Trial over 1600m on the Greyville turf.

Howells said about the decision to avoid the Gauteng Triple Crown events, “You have to be realistic, I think he’s a Group 2 horse. We are going to save him for the KZN season. I think he is now looking for a lot more ground.”

The Mambo In Seattle filly Same Jurisdiction will raid for the Gauteng Fillies Guineas and will then stay on for the Gr 1 Wilgerbosdrift SA Fillies Classic. She will likely stay with Joey Soma at Turffontein between races, which will give her the opportunity to gallop on the grass track and get used to the facilities.

Howells added, “She is doing very well. I am very happy with her progress and she has improved, there are no negatives. She’s a very good filly and still unexposed due to the long break she had.”

Same Jurisdiction was suspended for three months for epistaxis after her Gr 1 Thekwini win at the end of last season and her only run since has been an easy and impressive victory in the Gr 3 Flamboyant Stakes over 1600m at Greyville.

In other less positive yard news there have been a lot of temperatures among the horses, which is “setting them back and delaying things”, and they have not yet found the cause. Same Jurisdiction has not been affected and is “fine.”

Stable jockey Alec Forbes rode all four of the winners.

Gordon’s first win on Friday night was by the four-year-old Right Approach filly Donna Amata, who was returning from a seven month break and making her poly debut, so it was a good training feat to have her fit enough to win the 1400m maiden.

Later Gordon’s four-year-old Ashaawes gelding Assegai, who has always impressed with his lovely action, landed his third successive polytrack victory when winning a competitive MR 90 Handicap over 1900m.

The yard’s last runner on Friday night, the improving Ideal World filly Highly Regal, led close to home in a fillies and mares maiden over 1900m before finishing third. The winner of that race, the Mike de Kock-trained Archipenko filly Noor Dubai, looks one to follow as she overraced early but still finished like a train, so she must have some engine in her.

Yesterday Gordon won a weak maiden over 1200m on the poly with the three-year-old Argonaut filly Syringa, who was having only her third start, and later the four-year-old Judpot gelding Sugarbuzz proved far superior to the field in a 2400m maiden on the turf. The latter is out of a Montjeu mare and, despite being a bit keen early in the race, he waltzed clear to win as he liked so could have a fair future in staying events.

Gordon has a 16,05% win strike rate on the Greyville poly and his strike rate on the Greyville turf in the last two seasons has been 25%, so he is always one to follow at KZN’s flagship racecourse.