Double Grand Slam (black colours) wins the Gr 1 Maine Chance Farms Majorca Stakes under Andrew Fortune (Picture: Wayne Marks)
Cape Breeders
Maine Chance Farms’ star stallion Vercingetorix increased his lead on the South African General Sires premiership when his star daughter Double Grand Slam won the G1 Maine Chance Farms Majorca Stakes (1600m) at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth on Saturday.
The five-year old mare gave Justin Snaith and Andrew Fortune the first leg of a quick Gr 1 double on the day.
Double Grand Slam became a three-time Gr 1 winner, although this was her first stakes win of the season and she became Vercingetorix’s 12th stakes winner of the season.
Vercingetorix is out to break his own record of 23 stakes winners in a season, which he set last season, and he is halfway there at the halfway mark.
Fortune took her up to a position just off the pace when he realised the pace was not fast in the early stages.
It was a move that showed his versatility as a rider and Double Grand Slam’s versatility as a horse.
Double Grand Slam hit the front just after the field turned for home, and Fortune kept the Vercingetorix mare going strongly to win by a long neck from a fast-finishing Rainbow Lorikeet.
It was the first of two Gr 1 father-son exactas on the day as Andrew Forune’s son Aldo Domeyer was aboard Rainbow Lorikeet.
Mon Petite Cherie finished third.
Bred by Varsfontein Stud, Double Grand Slam was the Equus Champion Older Female of 2024-2025.
Saturday’s win pushed the mare’s tally to ten wins from 21 starts, with Double Grand Slam’s past victories including the 2025 G1 Cartier Paddock Stakes and 2025 G1 Ridgemont Garden Province Stakes.
Owned by Drakenstein Stud, Messrs Dave MacLean & Gary Player Stud Farm (Pty) Ltd, Double Grand Slam is out of the Captain Al mare Princess Peach.
The mare, who has won six graded races, was a R1 000 000 buy from the 2022 National Yearling Sale.
Double Grand Slam was one of three runners in this year’s Majorca Stakes for her champion sire Vercingetorix.
The latter is also the sire of Holding Thumbs, who ran third in Saturday’s G3 New Turf Carriers Western Cape Stayers.
