Picture: Hold My Hand holds on to win the Gr 3 Summer Fling Stakes over 2000m at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth under Richard Fourie (Image: Wayne Marks)
Drakenstein homebred Gold Standard fillies, the Candice Bass-Robinson-trained Gold Poker Game and the Glen Kotzen-trained Hold My Hand, won the Listed Lady’s Bracelet over 1600m at Fairview under Gareth Wright and the Gr 3 Summer Fling Stakes at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth over 2000m under Richard Fourie on Friday and Saturday respectively.
This provided a boost for the legendary Birch Brothers stud as Gold Standard moved to their Vogel Vlei Stud farm from Drakenstein Stud on October 1 last year.
It also gave phenomenal Drakenstein a stakes treble over the weekend which means they are well on their way to breaking a stakes race record for the third season in succession.
Hold My Hand beat another Drakenstein Stud homebred filly, the Brett Crawford-trained Futura filly Future Girl, by 0,40 lengths. Hold My Hand was always just behind the best fillies of her age group as a three-year-old and finally landed the second win of her career on Saturday when running on strongly from just backward of midfield before holding off the late challenge of Future Girl.
Although she has had just two wins, Hold My Hand has had three Gr 1 places, two Gr 2 places and a Gr 3 place, as well as a Listed second and a Non-Black type second.
Gold Poker Game also came from off the pace to beat the East Cape heroine Luna Halo in the Lady’s Bracelet.
Drakenstein’s other stakes win over the weekend was with their homebred Sean Tarry-trained Silvano filly Silver Hills, who won the Listed Wolf Power 1600.
Drakenstein Stud set a South African record of 18 individual stakes winners in the 2021/2022 season, which they increased to 20 last season and they already have 13 this season before the season’s halfway mark.
Colin Birch was thrilled by the Gold Standard stakes double.
Gold Standard was initially well supported by Drakenstein. However, there are many options for breeders in the Western Cape, so in his fifth season of covering and with breeders still awaiting results, he was not getting the outside support he deserved. It was thus decided to move him.
“We were excited to get him,” said Colin Birch.
Birch Brothers sent him 18 mares themselves and he received 32 mares in all, despite having arrived in the middle of the breeding season.
Hold My Hand and Gold Poker Game look to have come into their own this season.
Colin confirmed, “Gold Standard’s runners are doing nicely, they’ve obviously matured into themselves and are starting to produce the goods on the race track. Just chatting to a few trainers and breeders, they said they probably need a bit of time, so we’ve tried to mate him with a bit of speed.”
Colin will be hoping for more success from Hold My Hand and Gold Poker Game, who are both four-year-olds fillies from Gold Standard’s first crop, as is the Candice Bass-Robinson-trained Drakenstein Stud homebred Gr 3 winner Golden Hostess.
There is also the Glen Kotzen-trained three-year-old filly Royals, who finished third in the Gr 2 Western Cape Fillies Championship and second in a Listed event, and the well regarded Alec Laird-trained three time-winning and Listed fourth-placed four-year-old gelding Star Coin.
Kotzen trained Gold Standard himself to a magnificent runner up finish to William Longsword in the Gr 1 Cape Guineas and he followed up by finishing fourth in the Met to Whisky Baron, Legal Eagle and Captain America. He had earlier won the Listed RA Stakes and Gr 2 Selangor Cup both over 1600m.
Colin said about the big, good looking bay, “We have a lot of faith in him and are backing him. It is nice to be breeding to a son of Trippi, who is doing so well.”
The Birch Brothers Gr 1-producing stallion Red Ray (Western Winter) has a few new shareholders and he received close to 30 mares.
Colin said, “Based where we are, it is nice to have the option of two stallions who have produced top horses because travelling all our mares gets a bit much. We have sent a few to various stallions, but the majority of our mares are covered locally.”
Vogel Vlei is situated on the edge of the Karoo near the North Eastern Cape town of Dordrecht and is at about 1700m altitude, being on the foothills of the Stormsberg Mountain range. The harsh winters produce frosts which sterilise the environment and there are decent rains in the summer which herald fine pastures. The high nutritive value and mineral content of the natural grass and other grazing matter in the Karoo aids in the development of the horses.
Little wonder they have been SA champion breeders a record 40 times.
If the ten best thoroughbreds in SA history were named about half of them might well be Birch Brothers-bred, considering they have produced Sea Cottage, Lenin, Wolf Power, Colorado King, Bold Tropic, Evening Mist, Royal Chalice etc.
If races like the July, Met, Summer Cup, Queen’s Plate etc can be considered grand slam events, Birch Brothers have produced a record 34 Grand Slam victories.
However, it is tough for them these dayes becaise there used to be 30 to 40 thoroughbred breeding farms in the Karoo and this is now down to about six or seven.
Colin concluded, “I like to borrow the Castle Lager phrase ‘Stood the test of time’ for us as breeders and as an area for breeding horses.”
