Flag Man makes it a third successive win and a second win for the Van Zyl yard on may 11 at Hollywodbets Greyville (Candiese Lenferna Photography)
The Gareth van Zyl-trained Flag Man has burst in to the Gr 1 Hollywoodbets Durban July picture seemingly from nowhere and this has once again proved what a great eye for a horse Gareth’s father Gavin van Zyl has.
Gareth said, “Flag Man caught my Dad’s eye when he won his maiden plate. That is why we bought him from Garth Puller.”
Gavin famously bought a filly called Along Came Polly in training just over ten years ago after she had caught his eye in one of her early starts and she went on to become a twice Gr 1 winner.
There have likely been more purchases in between her and Flag Man and the latter did not take long to justify the decision to buy him.
Now owned by Larry Nestadt, Reon Barnard, Dave MacLean and Gary Player, he won his first two starts for the Van Zyl yard over 1600m and 1900m respectively and he then finished second in the Gr 1 Daily News 2000, which is traditionally the biggest three-year-old pointer to the July.
Gareth gives him a definite chance of giving the Van Zyls a first win of the country’s most famous race, the Hollywoodbets Durban July.
Flag Man’s head second in the Gr 1 Daily News 2000 surprised many pundits, because he was merit rated only 92 and in his previous start had beaten another Daily News runner The Grey King by just 1,40 lengths and had to face the latter on 5kg worse terms.
However, the money which came for Flag Man told a story, because he started at odds of 10/1 whilst The Grey King started 33/1.
Flag Man stayed on strongly from a handy position and was only just caught by the hot 67/100 favourite Green With Envy.
This finish also saw some history repeating itself for the Van Zyls, because eleven years earlier in 2013 the unconsidered Gavin van Zyl-trained 90/1 shot No Worries flew late from the back of a vintage field in the Daily News 2000 and failed by a short-head to catch Vercingetorix, with Capetown Noir next best and Wylie Hall and Rock Cocktail in fourth and fifth respectively.
Of course the name Vercingetorix has added value to that memory as he is currently the country’s most sought after stallion – it is just a matter of time before he becomes Champion.
Flag Man vindicated the yard’s belief in him with that magnificent Daily News performance.
Green With Envy, unlike his effortless win in the Gr 1 Splashout Cape Derby, had to pull out all the stops to beat Flag Man and as a consequence the pair left some good horses strung out like the washing behind them.
The handicappers thus gave Green With Envy a four point raise to 127 and Flag Man was given a 126, which means the pair have been set weights of 56kg and 55,5kg respectovely to carry in the big race.
Nevertheless, on collateral formlines they still have a fine chance and the bookmakers believe so too with the sponsor making them 3/1 and 25/2 shots respectively.
Another reason for the purchase of Flag Man could have been that he is a half-brother to a filly Gavin used to train called Admire Me (Capetown Noir), a capable sort who won four times and reached a merit rating of 99.
Gareth said about Flag Man, “He’s obviously progressed and I think you could say he’s exceeding our expectations.”
Gareth said Flag Man had been doing very well in his preparation for the Hollywoodbets Durban July.
He has not decided yet what the plan for the July gallops will be.
Garth Puller is a fine horseman in his own right, but the sire of Flag Man, Flying The Flag, with just two stakes winners from 136 runners, has hardly set the world alight, so he can be forgiven for letting Flag Man go.
The gentlemanly Puller does not harbour any ill feeling anyway and Gareth said, “He’s taken it well, he probably didn’t expect him to do as well as he has done, but he has been a gentleman about it and is a fan of the horse.”
Another fine horseman in the country is advocate Altus Joubert, who took in the former KZN-based Flying The Flag for his Riethuiskraal boutique bloodstock operation near the coastal town of Stilbaai a couple of years ago.
He would have noticed how deep Flying The Flag’s pedigree runs.
Flying The Flag’s sire Galileo needs no introduction and his dam by Pivotal was a three-times Group 1 winner who produced the five-times Group 1-winning full-sister to Flying The Flag, Magical, as well as the three-times Group 1-winning full-sister to Flying The Flag, Rhododendron.
Rhododendron is the dam of none other than the sensational Auguste Rodin, who yesterday (Wednesday) added the Gr 1 Prince Of Wales Stakes at Royal Ascot to his wins of the Epsom Derby, Irish Derby, Irish Champion Stakes and Breeders’ Cup Turf and he also won a Gr 1 as a two-year-old.
The richness in the pedigree is now coming out in Flag Man.
Altus said there had been no outside support for Flying The Flag whatsoever, but he added, “I used him quite a lot last year, more than I thought I would, because he produced some nice horses the year before, really, that’s why I gave him more mares this time around. And he’s an easy horse because he doesn’t have leg issues and he throws good size, so he’s a nice horse to use.”
Flying The Flag was not the same class as his two celebrated sisters but he did win a Gr 3 over ten furlongs at the Curragh.
It willl be interesting to see whether Flag Man’s success, not to mention the most recent exploits of Auguste Rodin, brings about any outside interest in the stallion.
