David Thiselton
The Vercingetorix filly Quickstepgal has been superbly handled by former Kimberley trainer and now Summerveld trainer Tienie Prinsloo and she landed the second Gr 1 of her career at the Hollywoodbets Durban July meeting at Holywoodbets Greyville on Saturday when winning the prestigious Gr 1 wfa Ridgemont Garden Province Stakes over 1600m.
She came out of the race very well, but the Greenacres Trust (Marsh Shirtliff)-bred filly, who is owned by the Laurence Wernars family and Harry Willson is now going to be given a deserved holiday.
The big question is what she will do in her four-year-old season?
That is presuming she will stay in training, although there is not much left for her to prove, considering she has won seven of her 13 starts, including two Gr 1s, a Gr 2, a Gr 3 and a Listed race, and she has also had five Graded places for total earnings of R2,642,187.
The best option looks to be to stick to the three Gr 1 wfa miles around the country, the Maine Chance Farms Majorca at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth, the TAB Empress Club Stakes at Turffontein and the Garden Province at Hollywoodbets Greyville.
Tiene said she would not stay the 1800m of the Gr 1 Cartier Paddock Stakes.
He also revealed that sprints were likely out of the question as she liked to use her natural speed to run in a relaxed manner before quickening over 1400m to 1600m trips, while the flat out nature of a sprint fired her up a bit too much and did not do her any good in the preparation for her main game.
Prinsloo had been very confident in the buildup to Saturday and viewed her as a banker.
He became even more confident as the race panned out.
She can always be relied on to break well and she duly did.
Jockey Keagan de Melo then sat in a one out and one back position on the 7/2 shot and had her nice and relaxed with the fancied 5/2 chance Mon Petit Cherie
behind her and the 11/10 favourite Double Grand Slam behind that one.
De Melo did not chase the pacemaker Whistle The Tune when the latter went two or three lengths clear.
She was in the exact position Prinsloo liked to see her and he said, “When she quickens nobody is going to catch her.”
He added, “She doesn’t need to lead.”
She won the Gr 1 WSB Cape Fillies Guineas from the front, but Tienie said her burst was even more effective if held up just off the pace.
De Melo could afford to just sit on her until the 300m mark before getting to work and it was soon clear that the running on Mon Petite Cherie and Double Grand Slam were not going to catch her.
She crossed the line 1,30 lengths clear of Mon Petite Cherie with Double Grand Slam a head further back in third.
“That was the Quickstepgal I know,” said Tienie.
Tiene was glad for De Melo, who had got to know the filly well through three placed runs, before winning on her in the Gr 2 HKJC World Pool Tibouchina Stakes over 1400m last time out.
Tienie should get a lot of the accolades as he knows all the ins and outs of this filly and how exactly to prepare her.
In a fun moment on the course owner Laurence Wernars spoke in the winning interview, something he never does, but he had promised his daughters that the day they were present on course for a Gr 1 win he would do the interview.
Quickstepgal gave the champion sire Vercingetorix his 31st stakes win of the season achieved with 21 horses.
He is in a race against time to break his own SA record of 23 stakes winners (of 33 races) he set last season.
Tienie signed for the Fire Away half-sister to Quickstepgal, Victory Blaze, at last week’s KZN Yearling Sale after securing her for R600,000, which was as opposed to the R450,000 Quickstepgal went for and the R1,3 million her full-sister went for, both at the same Sale in 2024 and 2025 respectively.
