This Varsfontein Stud-bred colt by Gimmethegreenlight out of the Listed-winning Jet Master mare Touch The Sky was the top priced lot on day 2 of the BSA August 2Yo Sale, despite being the third last of 332 lots at the Sale. (Candiese Lenferna Photography)

The Varsfontein Stud-bred colt Go Johnny Go fetched R2 million on Day 2 of the BSA August 2Yo Sale and that was not surprising as he is not only by record-breaking three times national champion sire Gimmethegreenlight but he is also a grandson of the late great Equus Champion broodmare Mystic Spring.

Go Johnny Go is out of the Jet Master mare Touch The Sky, a twice Listed-winning daughter of Mystic Spring, which makes her a half-sister to Gr 1 winners Rabiya and Bela-Bela and to five other stakes winners of whom Secret Of Victoria and Spring Lilac have become matriarchs themselves.

Go Johnny Go was purchased by JASM Solutions.

The story of Mystic Spring has been told often before, but is worth repeating and whenever it is retold there is plenty of updating to as the black type underneath her burgeons with every passing season.

South Africa’s only Hall Of Fame jockey Michael Muis Roberts was not only a fine ambassador for South African racing, being an eleven-time champion over here and a British Champion Jockey, but his success inadvertently had a positive impact on South African bloodstock too.

Roberts was approached one day in the late 1990s by Karen Newsome of Fieldspring Racing and asked about a filly they owned.

Karen’s husband John was the founder of Fieldspring Racing and South African racing will forever be indebted to this couple for the impact their 1997 decision to create a racing base in South Africa had.

This included John’s decision to never sell Fieldspring’s greatest horse Dynasty for export. .

The Newsome’s young filly Mystic Spring had not been doing too well racing in England and Karen asked Roberts whether he believed it would be worthwhile sending her to South Africa. She was out of a full-sister to Mystiko, who had given Roberts his first British classic success in the 1991 2000 Guineas at Newmarket.

Roberts recalled, “I told her I didn’t see why not as Mystiko had been a good fast ground horse and that was what you needed in South Africa.”

Mystic Spring was shipped over and put in training with Dean Kannemeyer Racing but didn’t show much and was soon retired to stud.

A couple of months later John Newsome made an arrangement with the great horseman and thoroughbred breeder Wilfred Koster to use the latter’s Cheveley Stud farm as the base for Fieldspring’s breeding operation.

This included bringing about ten imported mares in over a period of a number of years.

Vaughan Köster, who took over Cheveley Stud when his father passed away in 2008, remembered the arrival of a small and slight Mystic Spring at the farm.

He said in an interview a few years ago, “She was very sour and would chase you out of her stable. Perhaps it had something to do with all the travel and quarantine she had endured, but after being put out to pasture her attitude changed massively. She became a happy mare, although to this day she is still very protective over her offspring and with foal at foot you would not enter her stable without caution.”

Mystic Spring’s first foal was by Jallad.

Vaughan recounted, “It was a complete disaster. He was gangly, had an ugly head and was bad-legged with particularly bad hind legs. My father was given two options by the vets, either put him down or ‘throw him to the mountains.’”

The great horseman took the latter option. “Throw to the mountains” is a saying meaning the foal should not be fed too much, thus preventing too much weight on the legs.

A year later the sales inspectors were “generous” in giving the colt three out of ten as he still had “atrocious legs”.

“But he was very athletic,” recalled Vaughan.

The colt was put in training with the Kannemeyers.

Vaughan recalled, “Peter “PK” Kannemeyer phoned about three months later and told us, ‘This horse can run’. My father laughed and said ‘It can’t be!’”

The grey colt called Rabiya went on to win the Grade 1 Cape Guineas, the Grade 1 Daily News 2000 and the Grade 2 Cape Derby running in Fieldspring Racing’s maroon silks with the grey chevron.

However, his bad legs caught up with him in the most tragic of circumstances as he broke down in the 2005 Vodacom Durban July after starting favourite and had to be euthanised.

Nevertheless, Wilfred’s decision to work through a problem had ensured the foundation of a South African thoroughbred dynasty.

Mystic Spring’s second foal by Goldkeeper, Secret Of Victoria, was small, had the attitude of her mother and went on to become a great broodmare herself.

Vaughan recalled, “One day at the sales when it was time for the string to walk we waited and waited for Secret Of Victoria to appear. Eventually I walked over to her stable and found the groom cowering by the feed trough with her standing over him and refusing to let him move!”

Secret Of Victoria was bought by Garth Miller on behalf of the BBP syndicate due to the speed in her pedigree. Miller’s intuition proved to be lucrative in the long term for the syndicate members, Miller and Basil Nelson, and also for trainer Vaughan Marshall. Secret Of Victoria finished second in the Grade 1 Allan Robertson as a two-year-old and went on to become a Western Cape champion sprinter courtesy of three Graded wins, two Grade 2s and a Grade 3. At stud she has produced two Grade 1 winners, All Is Secret and The Secret Is Out, both bred by the BBP syndicate, both by Captain Al and both trained by Marshall. The Secret Is Out was raced by the BBP Syndicate too.

Secret Of Victoria has produced four stakes winners in all, the latest being the promising Roman Agent, who won a Listed juvenile race last season.

Cheveley Stud kept Mystic Spring’s third foal, the Joshua Dancer filly Spring Lilac. She won a Grade 3 race and has gone on to produce the outstanding dual Grade 1 winner Snowdance as well as stakes winners Juniper Spring, Victorian Secret, Navy Strength and stakes-placed Beat The Retreat and Captain Fontane,

Snowdance herself has gone on to produce last season’s Gr 1 Hollywoodbets Cape Guineas winner Snow Pilot and last season’s Gr 1 Allan Robertson third-placed Symphony In White.

Victorian Secret has produced the stakes winner Golden Sickle.

Meanwhile, in the 2016/2017 season the top class grey filly Bela-Bela, a three-time Grade 1 winner, at last secured Mystic Spring the title she had so richly deserved, the Equus Broodmare of The Year.

Varsfontein Stud own Bela-Bela and she has produced the Gimmethegreenlight Gr 2 winner Ciao Bella.

Varsfontein Stud own Mystic Spring’s twice Listed-winning daughter Touch The Sky, whose first foal Amy Johnson is already a Listed winner.

Vaughan concluded in an interview a few years ago, “Mystic Spring has never produced sales type ‘wow’ horses as such but they run in all shapes and sizes. With family members now at such top studs as Klawervlei, Drakenstein and Varsfontein they are sure to get the support of top stallions. Whether her daughter’s daughters can also continue her legacy remains to be seen.”

Mystic Spring’s family have done particularly well with Captain Al, who was the pride and joy of Vaughan’s cousin John Koster’s national championship-winning breeding operation at Klawervlei Stud.

Mystic Spring enjoyed the last few years of her life happily retired in the paddocks of Cheveley Stud until she passed away at the ripe old age of 27 in January 2023.

Her legacy will remain for many more years.

Gimmethegreenlight has the edge over Vercingetorix on the race track, at least for now, but Vercingetorix remains the king of the sales ring.

At the BSA August 2Yo Sale Vercingetorix had 14 lots sold for an aggregate of R13,4 million and an average of R957,143.

Gimmethegreenlight had ten lots solf for an aggregate of R7,675,000 and an average of R767,500.

One World was the third highest on avearge with ten lots sold at an average of R561,364.

Hawwaam had 12 lots sold at an average of R465,833.

Rafeef had 18 lots sold at R404,167.

The biggest downturn has been for Danon Platina, who averaged R303,846 for 13 lots sold last year and she averaged only R194,167 for 18 lots sold this year.

JASM Solutions bought seven lots for an aggregate of R5,725,000 for an average of R817,857.

The Muragasa family are behind JASM Solutions and their horses are currently with Brett Crawford and Peter Muscutt.

Form Bloodstock bought seven for R5,600,000 for an average of R800,000.

The top vendors were Wilgerbosdrift with 16 lots fetching an average of R12,235,000.

Varsfontein Stud’s 16 lots fetched an aggregate of 8,160,000 for an average 0f R510,000.

Millstream Farm’s ten lots fetched R4,460,000 for an average of R446,000.

The Sale saw an aoverall significant upturn as can be seen from the picture below of this year’s statistics vs the last few years’ statistics.

Bingwa has been selected to win the fifth race (JC Photos)

The Turffontein Inside track nine race-meeting is headlined by a Pinnacle Stakes event over 1600m, two Graduation Plates and a MR 96 Handicap.

In the fifth over 1600m, a Pinnacle event, Bingwa is only half-a-kilogram under sufferance with the best weighted but out of form Eye Of The Prophet and he has been in good form. However, he is the sort who needs things to go his way so it depends how it pans out from a tricky draw. Swing Upon A Star is joint-second best in with Bingwa and this talented sort can go close if proving he stays the trip. He has only tried it once and was not disgraced, but a draw of six out of eight makes it tricky. Key Element is 3kg under sufferance with the best weighted but is drawn in pole and is in hard knocking form plus she looks like she should start coming into her own this season.

In the first of the Graduation Plates over 1200m The Mike and Adam Azzie-trained Lancaster Bomber gelding Lead The Charge comes off a good fourth place finish in the Gr 2 Umkhomazi Stakes over 1200m at Hollywoodbets Greyville in which he beat another conetnder in this race, Buffalo Storm Cody, by 1,30 lengths. In his last win Lead Ther Charge overcame a wide draw but had to be used up a bit early and then after being lit up did not settle perfectly so did well to still win. That was over 1000m and he should prefer this trip on pedigree, but he can’t be a confident choice because he is drawn six out of seven and there must be a concern about him finding a good position and settling. Buffalo Storm Cody won on debut over 1000m by nine lengths and then finished a five length third in the Gr 3 Protea Stakes over 1100m before his run in the Umkhomazi. He has the widest draw of all so has his work cut out. The form of Taxi To The Moon’s last win over 1160m was franked but he is a two time winner and has to give the first two choices 2kg. He is officially rated four points lower than Lead The Charge and three points higher than Buffalo Storm Cody. Linkin Navigator and Dr Faustus are officially the best weighted of the older horses but are both 3,5kg under suffernace with Lead The Charge. However, they are both capable and have fair draws.

In the second of the Graduation Plates over the same trip for fillies and mares Force Eight was not disgraced last time against the classy Rodeo Drive. She has a hard task at the weights being 5,5kg under sufferance with the best weighted Betula, but she is on the up and is drawn in pole. Chasing Happiness is officially the second best in at the weights, being just 2,5kg under sufferance with Betula, and she is a consistent sort whose two wins have both been at this track, the last one over this course and distance. However, she has to jump from draw seven out of eight. Bosum Buddy is 4,5kg under sufferance with Betula and is drawn widest of all. However, she has pace and looks to be going the right way. It’s Her Way is way out at the weights but has shown ability and is drawn well. Betula looked to be full of promise at one stage, including winning a Sales race, but she is off form and needs to bounce back.

The MR 96 handicap over 1800m could go to the talented Player, who has won over this trip before and enjoys this track so he has a lot in his favour being fairly well drawn with in form Muzi Yeni up. King’s Express went close over course and distance last time from pole and has a fair draw off a one point higher mark with S’Manga Khumalo replacing Muzi Yeni. Millahue is talented and course and distance suited and should be cherry ripe.

In the first race over 1600m Far Reaching should enjoy the step up in trip and looks hard to beat.

In the second race over 1600m the hard-knocking Lacewing looks hard to oppose at first sight but Vulcanite should enjoy the step up in trip and could be a danger.

In the third over 1450m Accept Cookies might just have been cost victory last time by inexperience as she was green when finishing well and from a plum draw with in form Lerena staying aboard she can make amends.

In the fourth over 1450m Kaleesh Cyborg is the stand out on form having made a cracking debut over 1600m and likely to enjoy the step up in trip, but he has a tricky draw of six out of nine. The first-timer Jaham is by one of the world’s leading sires Kingman out of the Gr 2-winning middle distance performer Tamaanee, so he could give a lot of cheek.

The last race could go to Silver Parasol as he is continually improving and won his maiden easily, so a mark of 86 looks manageable. Mighty Goddess and Sensoria make most appeal of the others.

Gold Standard gelding King’s Sailor gives both Dennis Schwarz and Juan Nel the first leg of their individual doubles. (Pauline Herman Photography) 

Dennis Schwarz rode a double on the Fairview poly today.

Tara Laing and Juan Nel both sent out doubles.

Schwarz is now on seven wins for the season at 11.48%.

They were Laing’s first two wins of the season and she has done it at a strike rate of 9.09%.

Nel has had four wins at 36.36%.

Australian Champion racehorse by Ihtiram, Miss Andretti, held five track records simultaneously including the Ascot five furlong record after winning the Gr 1 King’s Stand Stakes at the Royal Ascot meeting.

CLICK HERE TO READ ABOUT MISS ANDRETTI