Picture : Princess Calla is the Equus Horse Of The Year (Candiese Lenferna Photography).
The Sean Tarry-trained Maine Chance Farms-bred and Mario Ferreira-owned Flower Alley mare Princess Calla finished top of the points table in the Equus Horse Of The Year race and it was no surprise to see her clinch the award.
The award voting process has three facets to it, the points table based on results in big races, the public vote and the vote by an expert panel.
Princess Calla won three Gr 1s during the season over distances ranging from 1200m to 1800m. The two against the girls, over 1200m and 1600m respectively, were both weight for age events and she won them easily. She then took on the boys in a vintage field in the open wfa Gr 1 HKJC World Pool Champions Cup over 1800m and ran out a cosy winner. Her three Gr 2s were all over sprints and the one that was against the boys she won by over five lengths. Her chief rival for the award Charles Dickens won the prestigious Gr 1 Hollywoodbets Cape Guineas as well as the open wfa Gr 1 Hollywoodbets Gold Challenge, both in brilliant fashion, and he finished narrow seconds in two other prestigious events, the Gr 1 L’Ormarins King’s Plate and Gr 1 Splashout Cape Derby. However, it was the brilliance of Princess Calla in race after race coupled with her versatility that won the day.
The biggest shock of the night for the purists came when Hoillywoodbets Durban July winner Winchester Mansion was named Equus Middle Distance Champion. With all due respect to the Drakenstein homebred Trippi gelding he was 5,5kg better off than weight for age in comparison to See It Again when defeating the latter by 0,25 lengths in the Hollywoodbets Durban July, meaning See It Again put in about a 5kg better performance. Winchester Mansion’s other middle distance victory was in the Gr 3 Hollywoodbets Dolphins Cup Trial where he carried 55,5kg and won easily. Meanwhile, See It Again, a Michael Roberts-trained Drakenstein Stud-bred Twice Over colt, won two prestigious Gr 1 events, the Splashout Cape Derby and the Daily News 2000. His close second in the July with a big weight was rated the best performance of the season over all distances by respected analyst Karel Miedema. See It Again followed that with a good second in the Gr 1 HKJC open wfa Champions Cup. Neither of his Gr 1 wins accumulated points because age restricted events did not count towards the distance category awards’ point tables. The general public would not know much about handicapping and might have plumped for Winchester Mansion as the July winner. However, See It Again would likely have been a landslide winner of this award among the purists.
Trainer Brett Crawford would probably have seen the Middle Distance award as consolation, because he might have expected to land the Equus Champion Three-year-old award with the Maine Chance Farms-bred Hollywood Syndicate-owned Dynasty filly Make It Snappy. She won the Gr 1 WSB Cape Fillies Guineas and then beat no fewer than four Gr 1-winning older horses in the Gr 1 Cartier Paddock Stakes, including Equus Horse Of The Year Captain’s Ransom.
The filly who was given the award, the Sean Tarry-trained Varsfontein Stud-bred Gimmethegreenlight filly Bless My Stars, won the Gr 1 Wilgerbosdrift SA Fillies Classic and the Gr 2 Riding High Together Gold Bracelet. She also finished third in the July, an excellent effort even if she was carrying bottom weight and was beaten 3,75 lengths. Make It Snappy’s inactivity after her last run of the season in the WSB Met might have counted against her. A comparison between Bless My Stars’ July performance and Make It Snappy’s Met performance might also have swung it in the former’s favour. Bless My Stars is onwed by Kenneth Pillay’s Kestorm Invetsments.
The Peter Muscutt-trained Narrow Creek Stud-bred Hollywood Syndicate-owned Isivunguvungu was named Champion Sprinter despite Gimme A Prince finishing top of the points table. Isivunguvungu won two open wfa sprints and that likely swung it his way, although Gimme A Prince’s two Gr 1 wins included an open wfa sprint as well as a win with top weight in a handicap sprint. Some would argue the latter win was at least as good as winning an open wfa sprint. The bare result would back them up because Isivunguvungu beat Surjay by 0,30 lengths at level weights in the Mercury Sprint, whereas Gimme A Prince beat Surjay by 0,95 lengths in the Golden Horse Sprint giving the latter 4kg. Gimme A Prince of course was defeated by Surjay in the Mercury Sprint at level weights, but he did also win a Gr 2 sprint during the season and was 1-1 in Gr 1 clashes with Isivunguvungu. Nevertheless Isivunguvungu is a deserved winner of such an award and kudos to the Muscutt yard who have nurtured him superbly from a somewhat headstrong horse into a champion.
Despite Isivunguvungu and Gimme A Prince being dual Gr 1 winners along with Puerto Manzano, the Champion Older Male award went to single Gr 1 winner, the Candice Bass-Robinson-trained Drakenstein Stud-homebred Trip Of Fortune. However, few would quibble about that award as the Trippi gelding had a phenomenal season, winning a Gr 3, two Gr 2s and an open wfa Gr 1. He won Graded events in three different provinces. He also put up some fine placed performances.
Princess Calla walked away with two trophies because she naturally won the Champion Older Female award.
The Candice Bass-Robinson-trained Drakenstein Stud-homebred superstar Charles Dickens was the other dual award winner, walking away as expected with the Champion Three-year-old award and the Champion Miler.
The Champion Stayer award went as expected to the Sean Tarry-trained Drakesnstein Stud-bred Beck family-owned Future Pearl (Futura).
The two-year-old awards also went as expected to the David Nieuwenhuizen-trained Varsontain Stud-bred Rakesh Singh-owned Sandringham Summit (Gimmethegreenlight) and the Sean Tarry-trained Clifton Stud-bred Magical Lady Syndicate-owned Mrs Geriatrix (Vercingetorix).
Drakenstein Stud were associated with five of the equine awards as breeders and four as owners. They also own the Champion broodmare Demanding Lady, dam of dual Gr 1-winner Charles Dickens, Listed winner Somerset Maugham and Gr 1-runner up Charles, and they own Trippi, who won the Oustanding Sire award.
Drakenstein were also Champion Breeders and Champion Owners, so all in all they had a phenomenal season.
The list of all the winner and descriptions are shown below:
