Expert Eye at the entrance to the Paardeberg stallion barn (Picture: Romi Bettison)
The dam of the Gr 2 Western Cape Fillies Championship winner Princess Of Gaul, the Duke Of Marmalade mare Miss Marmalade, was purchased by Paardeberg Stud from owner Clive Murphy about six months ago and will soon be covered by the farm’s resident stallion, the Breeders Cup Mile winner Expert Eye.
Princess Of Gaul in fact formed one leg of a remarkable double for Kannemeyer on Saturday as both of his winners on the day were out of siblings of separate Equus Champion Broodmares.
Princess Of Gaul’s dam Miss Marmalade is a half-sister to Equus Champion Broodmare Halfway To Heaven.
Kannemeyer’s winner of the second race over 1200m on Saturday, the Gimmethegreenlight filly Gimmeanotherviking, is out of Trippi mare Viking Princess, who was unplaced in her sole career start, but she is a full sister to Equus Champion Broodmare Real Princess.
The Fred Crabbia-owned Princess Of Gaul, is a Clive Murphy-bred Vercingetorix filly.
Her dam Miss Marmalade’s half-sister, the Jet Master mare Halfway to Heaven, was a much celebrated Equus Champion Broodmare.
Halfway To Heaven won seven times, including the Gr 3 Prix du Cap over 1400m at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth and the Listed Off To Stud Handicap over 1800m at Hollywoodbets Scottsville.
She went on to remarkably produce three multiple Gr 1 winners from her first three foals, the Mike de Kock-trained five-time Gr 1 winner Hawwaam (Silvano), the Eric Sands-trained five-time Gr 1 winner Rainbow Bridge (Ideal World), who won the WSB Met twice, and the Eric Sands-trained twice Gr 1 winner Golden Ducat (Philanthropist).
Miss Marmalade was trained for Clive Murphy by Gavin van Zyl.
She was not as good as Halfway To Heaven and was retired after winning second time out and then running unplaced in her third career start.
However, she is starting to show the same sort of prepotency as Halfway To Heaven did at stud.
Miss Marmalade’s first progeny was the useful Clive Murphy-homebred United States gelding Kingdundee, who was trained by the late Gavin Smith and is now trained by the latter’s son Dean. Kingdundee has won his last three starts and has won seven of eleven starts in total. Five of his wins have been over 1000m and two of them over 1200m. He is currently rated 118.
Princess Of Gaul, who was purchased for R600,000 at the National Yearling Sale, was Miss Marmalade’s second foal.
She is by Silvano’s prolific record-breaking son Vercingetorix, who is the reigning champion sire. That means she is closely related to Hawwaam, who was by Silvano.
On pedigree she should go further than 1400m, considering three of Hawwaam’s Gr 1 wins were over 2000m, but Craig Zackey believes she will be formidable if she drops in trip down to 1200m as she is packed with speed and took a bit of a hold on Saturday.
Subsequent to Princess Of Gaul being born, Miss Marmalade has produced a Quasillo colt and an Ideal World colt.
The Quasillo colt was born at Wynnholme Stud in Mooi River and Miss Marmalade was covered by Ideal World while at Wynneholme, but the Ideal World colt was born at Paardeberg Stud.
Miss Marmalade will shortly be covered by Expert Eye.
It looks like an excellent mating and will bring in-breeding to Danehill 4X3.
Meanwhile, Gimmeanotherviking was a bit tardily away in a 1200m maiden plate for fillies and mares on Sunday, but Craig Zackey switched her off and she sat right at the back of the 12 horse field.
She had a lot of ground to make up in the last 400m but was brought to the outside and began eating up the ground with an impressively big action.
She caught the leader late and won going away by 1,25 lengths.
Gimmeanotherviking is closely related to Equus Champion Sprinter Gimme A Prince and to the Hollywoodbets Durban July winner The Real Princess, being by the same sire, Gimmethegreenlight, out of a full sister to their dam Real Princess.
The Real Princess has also produced two other Gimmethegreenlights runners, Gr 3 winner Gimmie’s Countess and the highly promising three-year-old colt Gimmie Rules, who has won two out of his three starts.
Lady Christine Laidlaw’s Khaya Stables own Real Princess and own and bred all of her progeny.
Lady Laidlaw boards her mares at Varsfontein Stud and Viking Princess’s progeny are all officially bred by Varsfontein.
However, Khaya Stables own Gimmeanotherviking and also own her twice-winning full brother Industrial Strength.
Dean Kannemeyer trains both of the latter horses and he also trains a third sibling, the What A Winter gelding Prince Florian, who is owned by Fred Crabbia and is the winner of one race to date.
Khaya Stables must be pound for pound just about the top owner in the country at present.
Apart from the aforementioned horses, Khaya Stables also own the like of the highly promising Viva’s Liberte, the promising Gallic Victor and the useful Pomodoro’s Jet.
And they now also have the promising Gimmeanotherviking and the top class Princess Of Gaul.
Subsequent to Gimmeanotherviking being born, Viking Princess had been covered by Erik The Red (Captain Al) and Sandringham Summit (Gimmethegreenlight).
