Summerveld trainer Alistair Gordon’s gelding Beat The Retreat became the latest KZN-trained three-year-old to boost the returns of the discarded stallion Argonaut and displayed his Gr 2 Byerley Turk credentials in the process.

Beat The Retreat had a classy Progress Plate field over 1300m on the Greyville turf spread out like the washing behind him last Wednesday.

He galloped clear under Alec Forbes to beat the former Gr 3-winning Cape horse Captain Chaos, who is now with Mark Dixon, by an astonishing 5,5 lengths.

Beat The Retreat started favourite as he was receiving 5,5kg from the classy Gr 3-winner Redcarpet Captain, but few would have predicted him beating the latter by 12,75 lengths and finishing 15,75 lengths ahead of another classy sort in Main Submission. The latter pair were admittedly having comeback runs and will certainly improve on those performances.

Beat The Retreat joins the Michael Roberts-trained Natal as a son of Argonaut with South African Champions Season credentials.

The 1400m trip of the Byerley Turk, to be run on the Greyville turf on Friday night April 8, should be ideal.

Meanwhile, Gordon has said Royal Life is unlikely to be aimed at any features this season and will instead be given easier, confidence boosting tasks.

The Lammerskraal-bred son of Dynasty ran an eyecatching third in a MR 81 handicap over 1400m on the Greyville poly on March 9.

Royal Life was purchased out of the Duncan Howells yard as a three-year-old by former Lammerskraal owner Mike Rattray after winning his maiden over 1600m by 6,5 lengths at Scottsville in January last year, but a serious virus he contracted after being gelded delayed his debut for the Gordon yard.

By David Thiselton

The J&B Met winner Smart Call flew to Mauritius on Sunday on the first leg of her journey to America, where she will attempt to emulate her paternal grandmother Banks Hill by winning the Breeders Cup Filly and Mare Turf.

The Mauritzfontein Stud-owned and bred Smart Call is currently rated the joint sixth best thoroughbred racehorse in the world after winning the Met with contemptuous ease.

The win was another feather in the cap for Bloodstock agent Alistair Brown, who sourced Smart Call’s superbly bred sire Ideal World on behalf of Mauritzfontein.

Ideal World is grabbing more and more attention due to the class of his first couple of crops.

Brown is quite a low profile racing industryman, considering he has been responsible for the import of champion sires Al Mufti and Fort Wood and also such well performed stallions as Strike Smartly and Goldkeeper, Gr 1-Cape Guineas producing sire Sail From Seattle and latterly Noble Tune, who has attracted many Cape mares to the KZN Midlands due to his increasingly attractive pedigree.

Well known bloodstock agent Robin Bruss also had a lot to do with the existence of Smart Call.

Bruss was asked by Mauritzfontein Stud’s late great Bridget Oppenheimer to find an overseas mare which she could send to her beloved champion Horse Chestnut due to the export protocols of the time making it difficult to send a South African mare. Horse Chestnut was standing in Kentucky in the USA after his glittering career was ended by injury early in the year 2000.

Bruss’s search was in the long run to yield both a Vodacom Durban July winner and a J&B Met winner.

He found a mare at the Inglis Sale in Australia called Great Verdict and bought her in foal to Zabeel for Aus$370,000, at a time the exchange rate was only about 3 to 1.

Great Verdict was by an unfashionable stallion called Christmas Tree, but her dam Summoned had been very successful, producing the champion racehorse and sire Zeditave as well as four other stakes winners.

Bruss also liked the mating with Zabeel.

Great Verdict was in Kentucky two weeks after the sale, a far cry from the arduous journey Smart Call will have to undergo due to the current quarantine requirements placed on horses travelling from an African Horse Sickness endemic country.

The Zabeel foal Great Verdict gave birth to in the USA was none other than Grey’s Inn, who won the Vodacom Durban July for Oppenheimer in 2004, conditioned by Horse Chestnut’s trainer Mike de Kock.

Great Verdict produced three foals by Horse Chestnut and the oldest of them, Good Judgement, was shipped to South Africa to stand at Mauritzfontein Stud before she had ever raced.

Good Judgement’s fifth foal to race was Smart Call.

It was somewhat ironic that Smart Call upset Legal Eagle in the Met as the latter is by her close relative Greys Inn, who has become a top class sire.

However, Ideal World is the sire on everybody’s lips.

Brown could not have found a more suitable replacement for Fort Wood, who in no uncertain terms ended the bleakest spell in Mauritzfontein’s glittering history.

Fort Wood, who was the sire of Horse Chestnut, was by one of the most influential stallions in thoroughbred history, Sadler’s Wells, and his dam Fall Aspen was one of world’s best broodmares. Among Fall Aspen’s eight Graded stakes winners was the US Champion two-year-old colt Timber Country, who went on to win the Preakness; Hamas and Fort Wood, who both won Gr 1s in Europe and became sires; Northern Aspen, a Gr 1 winner in the USA; and the Gr 2 winner Colorado Dancer, who became dam of Dubai Millennium, the eighth highest Timeform rated horse in history.

Ideal World is by Kingmambo, a champion three-year-old in France, who became one of the world’s leading sires. Kingmambo was superbly-bred being by one of history’s most influential stallions, Mr Prospector, out of Hall Of Fame mare Miesque.

Ideal World’s dam Banks Hill was by the most successful stakes producing stallion in thoroughbred history, Danehill. She was out of Hasili, who became the first Northern Hemisphere-bred dam in history to produce five Gr 1 winners. Among the latter was Dansili, who sired Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner Rail Link.

Banks Hill was a three-time Gr 1-winner herself and was named European Champion filly and American Champion Female Turf Horse in 2001. Among her Gr 1 wins was a 5,5 length victory over the South African-bred Spook Express in the Breeders Cup Filly and Mare Turf.

Ideal World was touched off by a nose in the Gr 2 Prix Niel over a mile-and-a-half by Vision D’Etat and the latter ended his career as a four-time Gr 1-winner.

South Africa are indeed fortunate to have such a blue-blooded stallion standing out here and the dividends are already being reaped.

Some of the other horses on the flight to Mauritius on Sunday included Noah From Goa, Nassa, Same Jurisdiction and Madame Dubois.

Both Noah From Goa (Tiger Ridge) and Nassa (Dynasty) were bred by Mary Slack’s Wilgerbosdrift Stud and the former is part-owned by them too.

The whole country will be behind Smart Call when she lines up in the Breeders Cup in November and the Oppenheimer family will once again be saluted for the tremendous influence they have had on South African thoroughbred bloodstock.

By David Thiselton

Denied in the boardroom, Stonehenge lost nothing in defeat when running the race of his life in the Gr2 Colorado King Stakes at Turffontein yesterday. Beneficiary of the objection was last season’s Dingaans winner Unparalleled (9-1) with hot favourite French Navy (6-10) a spent force some way out and a well beaten third ahead of Mac De Lago.

It was a plan that possibly went awry for Sean Tarry as Stonehenge looked set up as pacemaker for French Navy but the Algoa Cup winner responded with a tremendously courageous front-running effort and it was a bit of rough justice to lose the race on an objection.

JP van der Merwe wasted no time pressing Stonehenge into the lead setting a solid gallop and opening a gap of three lengths on a chasing Killua Castle who in turn was four ahead of French Navy who was being shadowed by Mac De Lago.

Come the straight most expected Stonehenge to fall away and French Navy to accelerate into the lead. But the incredulity was clear in commentator Alistair Cohen’s voice as Stonehenge kept rolling and French Navy bobbed along one-paced. With all eyes on French Navy, Bernard Fayd’Herbe slipped Unparalleled almost unnoticed up the inside fence reeling in Stonehenge stride for stride. Two jumps from the line an exhausted Stonehenge ducked sharply inwards into Unparalleled, holding on to his lead but doing enough damage to have the result overturned in the boardroom.

Unparalleled was off the track for almost nine months after finishing six lengths back to Wylie Hall in last year’s Premiers Champion Challenge and Johan Janse van Vuuren will be hoping that his charge can emulate Wylie Hall with victory in the Colorado Stakes going on to the Premiers Champion Challenge at the end of next month.

It’s difficult to read anything into French Navy’s run as he was given every chance but just didn’t fire. It was his second below par run in succession but given that runners from the Tarry yard are almost invincible at present, it would be folly to write him off for the Champions Challenge but there are now more questions than answers.

Coennie de Beer, with his one good horse, has not been shy to travel and Talktothestars knows well the inside of a horse float. In his travels to Flamingo Park, Scottsville and Kenilworth he proved himself a hard-knocking handicapper but he reaped a deserved feature race victory when getting the better of a titanic struggle with the smart filly Lazer Star in the Gr 2 Senor Santa Stakes. The final furlong turned into a cavalry charge worthy of the Light Brigade as a dozen runners were in contention but Talktothestars and Lazer Star edged clear of the pack over the final 50m. It was heads up-and-down at the line but the photo showed the 25-1 shot snatching the verdict from the favourite.

This was his eighth win from 21 starts and by far the best son of Overlord.

The Tarry machine may have slipped a cog in the Colorado King but it was back to its smoothly oiled best in the Gr 3 Sycamore Sprint. The race drew a competitive field of fillies but there was nothing competitive in the finish as Tiger’s Touch simply smoked home. S’Manga Khumalo asked for an effort a long way out and the Australian-bred daughter of Where’s That Tiger put the race to bed in a matter of strides with another Aussie-bred, Sensible Lover, stepping out of the pack late but still over three lengths adrift of the winner.

The Tarry machine rolled on in the Oaks Trial with Inaninstant taking full advantage of her 4kg pull in the weights. She led early in the straight and try as she may, stable companion Intergalatic couldn’t make up the leeway as the daughter of Silvano kept finding to win rather comfortably.

The Derby Trial fell the way of the Brian Wiid-trained Bankable Teddy who made short work of some rather modest opposition. The word was out on course that Bankable Teddy was the right one and he duly obliged under Chase Maujean, romping home by over four lengths.

By Andrew Harrison

Orion Quest will answer one of the big outstanding questions of recent weeks when he takes on older horses for the first time in the Itsarush.co.za Handicap at Kenilworth on Saturday.

The way he won his maiden in January was staggering. Going to the front over a furlong out, he strode right away under no more than hands and heels to score by more than seven lengths. It was the sort of margin owner Diane Nagle might expect from the horses she sends to Aidan O’Brien but rare indeed in Cape Town.

“He won well but it wasn’t a strong field,” recalls Brett Crawford whose plan to bring the colt back at Durbanville four weeks ago was thwarted by coughing. The problem here is that the form has been shown to have more holes in it than a piece of Swiss cheese and is hardly worth a string of beads.

One after another of the 12 beaten horses has disappointed. One finished second and another fourth but the majority have flopped. So how good is Orion Quest and, more to the point, is he good enough to win on Saturday?

The handicappers gave him a rating of 85, high for a three-year-old maiden winner but not unjustified. After all seven-plus lengths is the equivalent of 17 points.

Corne Orffer’s mount seems sure to start favourite but there are others with at least equally strong claims including Sophomore fourth Psycho Syd, Equity Kicker (dropped two points for last time’s 1 400m run and possibly better over this trip) and the improving Fire Master. However Winter Trade, 2.5kg better with Fire Master for the length he was beaten on Met day, makes most appeal at expected odds of around 6-1.

Dancer, even though perhaps a little disappointing last time, gets the vote for Joey Ramsden in race one where Robert Khathi gets the chance on the Justin Snaith newcomer Pride Rock – Richard Fourie has preferred to go to Turffontein for Weiho Marwing – but this one’s dam only won over 1 800m.

The Vaughan Marshall-trained R2.2 million William Longsword looks a bigger threat – his dam is a half-sister to Victory Moon – while Ramsden should double up half an hour later. He has a third of the nine runners and, while Captain Gambler showed plenty of promise on debut, preference is for Sandy Bay who would have finished a lot closer to Not On My Watch last month had she got away on terms. Again look out for the Marshall newcomer – Flash Fire cost only R250 000 but her dam won four times over 1 200m.

Weskus Klong has proved a bookies benefit in his last two starts and, even though he wears blinkers for the first time in the Soccer 6 Maiden, it could pay to look elsewhere. Zud Wes may be the one.

By Michael Clower