The Sales Topper, Man Of His Word, will definitely not be racing in South Africa and will be departing for Hong Kong. (Candiese Lenferna Photography)
The highest price lot at the BSA National Yearling Sale, a Wilgerbosdrift Stud-bred Gimmethegreenlight colt out of the Redoute’s Choice mare Honorine, will be heading for Hong Kong having been purchased by the Hong Kong Jockey Club for R6 million.
Wilgerbosdrift Stud general manager Shane van Zyl gave an insight into the buying process for the Hong Kong Jockey Club (HKJC) and revealed how thorough they are.
He said, “Tony Millard did the ground work for them and pre-selected the horses. Then eventually one of the agents for the HKJC flies in and inspects the horses with him and they then decide which horses they like. Then they get a veterinarian to come out and vet those horses and to do a pre-sales scope. Then they go back to the drawing board and go and look at the x-rays. If there is the smallest of issues on the x-ray they won’t buy that horse. Then as soon as they finish bidding on the horse the vets come around again to do bloods on the horse to make sure there is no funny stuff in their bloods. So they have very strict criteria before they even try and buy a horse. The x-rays must be 100%. Even if there is just a small tiny little issue on the x-ray they just write them off immediately.”
Everybody, including Wilgerbosdrift, had expected their Vercingetorix colt out of Halfway To Heaven to be their top lot, if not the top lot of the whole Sale. After all he is by a boom sire and is a three-parts brother to Hawwaam and a half-brother to Rainbow Bridge and Golden Ducat.
However, Shane said, “We did expect the Honorine colt to be our second highest lot and I know that the underbidder was Jehan Malherbe on behalf of Lady Laidlaw, so we had all the big boys on him. He is a phenomenal specimen, very athletic, well balanced and very correct, a quite beautiful looking horse. Honorine was no superstar, but he himself was just a stand out specimen and everything was correct. His x-rays were fine, his scopes were good. Everything was just a hundred percent. And that is what they look for.”
He continued, “I was overwhelmed by that price. I thought he would go for good money, but I didn’t expect R6 million. I only had a reserve of R500,000 on him!”
Shane does not know who is going to train the colt, who is called Man Of His Word, but knows he will be departing for Hong Kong.
He said, “He is definitely going out.”
Wilgerbosdrift also had a R5 million lot, a Hawaam colt out of Espumanti, which makes him a half-brother to Hollywoodbets Durban July winner Sparkling Water. It was fitting the Hollywood Syndicate bought him, because Sparkling Water was the winner of the first July sponsored by Hollywoodbets.
Shane said, “It was a phenomenal price for a first season sire. He was also a lovely specimen. In our string he was my pick. He is also well balanced and very correct. A classic looking specimen, he floated when he walked. He was really by far my favourite in the string. I expected to get about a million for him. I didn’t expect R5 million with Hawaam being a first season sire.”
Sabine Plattner bought Wilgerbosdrift’s third highest priced lot, the Vercingetorix colt out of Halway To Heaven, for R2.8 million.
Shane has thirty years experience of stud farm horsemanship.
He started at Klipdrift Stud in Robertson and worked their for Bennie Marais for 26 years.
“We were basically a boarding stud,” he said.
He was appraoched by Mary Slack and has worked for her Wilgerbosdrift Stud for four years.
Wilgerbosdrift were the leading vendor at the BSA National Yearling Sale. All 19 of their lots were sold for an aggregate of R25,525,000 and an average of R1,343,421. That is an indicator of the quality they produce.
Man Of His Word was not their highest ever priced lot at a Sale.
They sold a Silvano colt out of Fort Wood mare Quickwood for R9 million at the 2019 BSA Nationals, which still stands as the South African record, and they solf Hawwaam’s full brother Celestial City for R7 million at the 2020 Sale.
