South Africa’s only Frankel filly, Miss Frankel, will be going into training in Durban with Dennis Drier at the end of the month.

Boom horse Frankel, who became a world-wide legend in winning all 14 of his racecourse starts, has had his first runners as a stallion this year and all six of his progeny to have raced so far have won.

Little surprise, then, that Drier is “over the moon” to be handed Miss Frankel, the second foal of Avontuur Stud’s well-performed mare Val De Ra and due to race in the Taberer’s Avontuur Stud silks.

It will be a while before racing fans see the chestnut filly, who only turns two on 1 August, in action. “She hasn’t even been broken yet,” said Drier. “She’s coming straight off Avontuur Farm and will only debut next year.

“I’ve been to see her a couple of times and she’s lovely, very correct.”

Cunco gave Frankel his first winner in May at Newbury and his most recent was Seven Heavens at Ascot on Friday last week. He already has Group 3 and Listed placings to his credit – Queen Kindly and Cunco respectively.

Miss Frankel and Val De Ra (Liesl King)

According to “Racing Post”, Seven Heavens, who cost 620,000 guineas as a yearling, travelled sweetly to the front before asserting himself in the final 200m and jockey Robert Havlin said: “I’ve ridden two Frankels now and they’ve both wanted to get on with things at home, but come raceday they’re as good as gold.”

John Gosden, who trains Seven Heavens, said: “He’s a grand horse and did it well. He hit the front a long way out and was on his own in the middle of the course from the two pole, so he did well to win as he did. I wouldn’t be in a rush with him and would rather bring him along gradually.”

Teddy Grimthorpe, racing manager to Khalid Abdullah who raced Frankel and in whose silks Seven Heavens races, said on “Sporting Life”: “We’re very pleased with him. There are various options for him at a higher level like the Richmond Stakes. Equally so, there are options like various novice events. We are just seeing how he progresses and comes out of the race so he can tell us where we want to be.”

Drier also has care of Avontuur’s other high-profile import, the Oasis Dream filly Dream De Ra, who is also from Val de Ra. Dream De Ra was born in Britain to southern hemisphere time.

About to turn three, Drier said: “She’s doing well. She’s a nice filly, although she hasn’t got the quality or beauty of Miss Frankel. But she’s a nice, strongly built, well put together filly.”

TABnews

Neil Bruss won the Queen Palm Stakes, now downgraded from Listed to non-black type, for the second year in succession on Saturday at Greyville and this time it was with the Ideal World four-year-old filly Zante, who was bred by Mauritzfontein’s assistant stud manager Nigel Page.

Bruss did the one-two as Zante beat last year’s winner Deputy Ryder by six lengths. The Joey Ramsden-trained Grey Light was third.

After original jockey Weichong Marwing had been booked off, Anton Marcus had seemed a bit reluctant to be substitute, according to Bruss, as he had questioned whether Zante would stay the 2400m trip.

However, after Bruss had replied, “If you take her to the front she will go around twice,” Marcus had then agreed to take the ride.

Marcus put the advice into action after his initial attempt to hold Zante up behind the leaders had seen her racing a touch keen. She then bowled along into a six length lead and showed no signs of stopping in the straight.

Both Zante and Deputy Ryder will be aimed at the Gr 2 Gold Bracelet over 2000m on Super Saturday.

David Thiselton

National Champion trainer Sean Tarry scored another milestone when reaching a likely record of 200 winners for the season on Saturday at Greyville and it was fitting it happened in a feature race.

Tarry had a strong hand in the Listed Off To Stud Stakes over 1600m on the polytrack.

However, in the end it was the least fancied of his five runners, Lady Of Kildare, who prevailed under a typically polished ride from Anthony Delpech, beating stablemate Enchanted Silk by 1,75 lengths.

This Klawervlei Stud-bred five-year-old Captain Al mare has now won half of her eight starts on the Greyville poly.

Tarry is thought to be the first trainer to have ever reached the 200-winner mark in a South African season. He saddled three more winners at Turffontein yesterday to take his season tally to 203.

David Thiselton

Red Ray looks set to be retired to stud at Klawervlei following his inspired return to form in the Mercury Sprint at Greyville last Saturday.

Owner Markus Jooste’s racing manager Derek Brugman said yesterday that he is having discussions with the stud’s directors and that he might not know for sure until the end of the week.

But he added: “Red Ray is a brilliant horse and he has achieved everything we set out for him. With his pedigree, winning a Group 1 was all he needed on his CV to make a top stallion.

The Conglomerate (Nkosi Hlophe)

“It is a bit late in the season to send him to stud but we can make a plan to make it work for all the breeders who support him.”

The Sean Tarry-trained Legal Eagle, who many thought would go for the Champions Cup after side-stepping the Vodacom Durban July, is to have a rest before having another crack at the top Cape Town races. The four-year-old won the L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate in January before beating all except Smart Call in the Met.

Brugman explained: “Legal Eagle raced in two different provinces [he also won the HF Oppenheimer Horse Chestnut and the Premier’s Champions Challenge] and, while I would have expected him to win a race of the calibre of the Champions Cup, I didn’t think it was prudent to put that pressure on the horse.

“I discussed it with Sean and we have decided to give him a break and bring him back for the feature season in Cape Town.  He would probably then go back to Jo’burg for the Horse Chestnut and Premier’s Champions Challenge.”

Durban July hero The Conglomerate also misses the Champions Cup and the Joey Ramsden-trained four-year-old is to be aimed at the Sansui Summer Cup that Markus and Ingrid Jooste won with Wagner in 2012. They were also part-owners of the 2013 winner Yorker.

Brugman said: “I know it’s sacrilege to give the Champions Cup a miss when the horse is in such good form but we would like to be able to go for the Summer Cup off his present rating.”

Michael Clower

Ready To Attack is to go again before the winter is out and he looks like staying a kilo or two in front of the handicapper after returning to winning form in the Racing.It’s A Rush Handicap at Kenilworth on Saturday.

Richard Fourie’s mount won with authority but the margin was only three-quarters of a length and apparently there is more to come.

“He was not quite ready so he should improve a bit from this and he loves the wet,” explained Chris Snaith. “In Australia More Than Ready’s offspring are renowned for liking the soft when they can be five to ten lengths better.”

Gelding is also playing a part in the three-year-old’s improvement – “He was a very aggressive sort and if ever a horse was well-named it’s him. He put MJ Byleveld in hospital after winning the Langerman and if anything came near him at home he would back up three paces and let fly. We gelded him six or seven weeks ago and he looks a lot calmer now.”

However Snaith snr quickly found out that appearances can be deceptive with this horse. ‘Three weeks after the operation I put him back in the string and he promptly started lining them up again!”

The Australian-bred sported the Jooste colours carried to Mercury Sprint victory by Red Ray ten minutes earlier but is part-owned by Hassen Adams who has become a major player in the Stop Hunger Now campaign and personally packed 3 000 meals. In his more familiar role Adams also scored with the Darrel Hodgson-trained 10-1 shot Trippvilia (Xavier Carstens) and Red Light Girl for Snaith Racing.

The last-named started favourite for her two previous races but got going too late. Fourie made sure it was third time lucky by bouncing her out of the pens and leading throughout. His mount beat the well-regarded Scandola by three and a half lengths with the third seven lengths away.

Randall Simons, hoping to build some useful Cape Town contacts on his first visit to Kenilworth  for five seasons, had the sort of day that air travellers have nightmares about.

“When I got to Oliver Tambo at 6.00am South African Airways told me that they had cancelled my 7.00am flight the night before,” he related. “I’d received a flight confirmation but no emails about any cancellation.

“I tried to get on other flights – I even drove to Lanseria and then back to Oliver Tambo – but I couldn’t get anything.”

In the Kenilworth weighing room trainers and their assistants searched for last-minute replacements as desperately as prospectors during a gold strike. But the already-critical situation was made even worse by Craig du Plooy falling sick after the first and three of the Simons mounts had to be scratched.

Charisma made sure of a Port Elizabeth reprieve by responding to first time blinkers in the Designamite Incorporated Maiden. “She is a very light-framed filly and there is a fine line between getting her fit enough and doing too much,” said Candice Robinson. ”We said we would send her to PE if she couldn’t win her maiden.”

Aldo Domeyer followed up on Shane Humby top weights Tribal Fusion and Neala but Robert Khathi, who won the last on Galla Placidia for Eric Sands, has been suspended for a week because of the way Sign Your Name barged aside her opponents a week earlier.

Paul Reeves, who had an opening race one-two with 20-1 shots, reckons runner-up Birds Eye View has more of a future than the winner. “He is a nice horse in the making whereas Brandon May’s mount Newsman is a Mauritius candidate. He ran a good race in a strong field first time but in his second race he wouldn’t raise a gallop and I put blinkers on here,” he explained.

Michael Clower