Nick Jonsson and Double Superlative after his WSB Met victory. Jonsson now brings the grandson of the legendary Jet Master, whom his uncle Hugh Jonsson bred, to stand in the KZN Midlands. (Picture: Wayne Marks)
The Gr 1 Cape Guineas and Gr 1 wfa WSB Met winner Double Superlative will be standing at Blue Sky Thoroughbreds under the watchful care of Bruce le Roux and Tinus Gericke and will be introduced to industry people at a stallion day at the stud farm on Friday, March 28.
Double Superlative had speed and class, which enabled him to win over 1400m third time out, before finishing close up to Gr 1-winning sprint-miler Trip Of Fortune in the Gr 3 Cape Classic over 1400m.
In his next start he displayed a scintillating turn of foot to win the Gr 1 Cape Guineas, which is commonly regarded as South Africa’s greatest sire producing race.
Double Superlative also had another ingedient sought after in a sire i.e. courage, because he managed to later come back from a serious tendon injury to win one of South Africa’s iconic races, the Gr 1 wfa WSB Met over 2000m.
Nick Jonsson raced Double Superlative, who was by Twice Over out of five time-winning Jet Master mare Come Fly With Me.
Come Fly With Me was runner up in both the Gr 3 Diana Stakes (1400m) and Gr 3 Champagne Stakes (1200m) and scored a third place in both of those races too.
Come Fly With Me is an own sister to the top class filly Fly By Night, who won the Gr 1 weight for age Mercury Sprint over 1200m as well as the Gr 2 Southern Cross Stakes over 1000m, where she beat the Equus Champion Sprinter Alboran Sea, and among her many Graded places she was twice a runner up in the Gr 1 SA Fillies Sprint, beaten on one occasion a head by the Equus Champion Sprinter Via Africa, and she had a third in that race too.
Twice Over was trained by the great Henry Cecil and won four Group 1 races in England, the Eclipse, the International (The Juddmonte) and he twice won the Champion Stakes.
He also won in Dubai and finished third behind the great Zenyatta in the Breedeers Cup Classic on the dirt.
He is probably only behind Duke Of Marmalade as the best performed imported thoroughbred to ever stand in South Africa.
The only reason he was likely released by Juddmonte was because his stallion career would have coincided with that of the great Frankel.
South Africa were fortunate to land Twice Over, who is by Observatory out of Listed Oaks Trial-winning Blushing Groom mare Double Crossed, who is a half-sister to Clepsydra, a Sadler’s Wells mare who produced three Group winners, including Group 1 winner Timepiece (Zamindar).
Twice Over, who stood at Klawervlei Stud, has produced four Group 1 winners and it is no coincidence that Nick Jonsson owns three of them.
Jonsson is a horseman through and through and has a phenomenal Gr 1 record.
He had faith in Twice Over and it paid dividends as he was part-owner of Twice Over’s best son, Do It Again, who is the greatest Durban July horse in history, having won the race twice and being placed in it a further four times. He is in fact the only horse to run in the great race six times.
There is plenty of irony in racing, such as Australians all wanting to win the two mile Melbourne Cup and yet breeding for speed and precocity.
Likewise in South Africa Twice Over did not gain popularity after Do It Again’s second victory in South Africa’s most celebrated race, rather he became unfashionable.
However, Jonsson never lost faith and consequently owned a number of the next best Twice Overs, like the dual Gr 1 winner Double Superlative, the dual Gr 1 winner See It Again as well as the like of Gr 2 winner Mucho Dinero and the hard knocking Triple Time.
If Jonsson was able to spot racing performance potential, then breeders should sit up and take notice when he sends one of them to stud.
Just over 30 years ago Nick’s Uncle, Hugh Jonsson, sent his Rollins twice-winning mare Jet Lightning to Rakeen.
Hugh no doubt recognised that Rakeen was one of the best bred horses to ever come to South Africa, being a son of Northern Dancer, the most influential sire of the 20th century if not of all time, out of Halo mare Glorious Song, a well related USA champion older female, a twice Canadian champion older female and a Canadian Horse Of The Year.
The resulting progeny of the Rakeen-Jet Lightning match was Jet Master, who was famously sold for just R14,000 as a weanling and went on to become a superstar racehorse.
The Gr 1s he won included the Cape Guineas, the Queen’s Plate twice, The Gold Challenge, the Golden Horse Sprint twice, the Cape Flying Championship and the Mercury Sprint.
He was packed with speed and class.
However, the experts did not predict a bright future for him at stud due to his uninspiring female line.
They were all wrong because he became the greatest South African-bred sire in history, winning the championship seven times.
He also became a multiple champion broodmare sire.
Now, Double Superlative joins Celestial City as the only grandson of Jet Master standing in KZN.
Double Superlative is a a horse who has won two of South Africa’s most iconic stallion producing races, the Cape Guineas and the Met, he is by a horse who won four Gr 1s in Europe, and he is out of a well performed and well related mare by the legendary Jet Master.
Furthermore, it is the Jonsson family who bred Jet Master who are bringing his blood back home.
And finally, it the lady who spotted Jet Master as a weanling and persuaded her husband to buy him i.e. Patricia Devine, who bred Double Superlative.
A class racehorse with human intuition woven into the mix.
What more would one want in a first season stallion?
