James Armitage in amongst the horses at Sandown Stud.
When a Wylie Hall filly called Law Of Success makes her debut over 1200m at Turffontein Inside on Sunday she will provide something of a throwback to the past for James Armitage of Sandown Stud.
He will be hoping she proves useful because she is the last of an important family for Sandown, a stud operation which was founded in 1972 in what was then called Rhodesia.
Sandown Stud, which is now based between Paarl and Stellenbosch in the Western Cape, is flying high at the moment as breeders of the Joe Soma-trained Lady Of Power, who won the Grade 2 Wilgerbosdrift Gauteng Fillies Guineas last Saturday.
Furthermore, the Nathan Kotzen-trained Royal Victory, a son of Sandown’s resident stallion Pathfork, went within a whisker of making it something of an Armitage double when touched off by Eye Of The Prophet in the Grade 2 WSB Gauteng Guineas.
Ironically, Eye Of The Prophet is trained by Paul Matchett, because it is he who is sending out the leased filly Law Of Success on Sunday.
One had to blink and look again to take in that Law Of Success will become only the second runner of a mare called Nest Egg, because the latter is a full sister to the James Goodman-trained champion Gold Tax.
Gold Tax was the Equus Champion Two-year-old as long ago as the 1997/1998 season, which was a feat made particularly meritorious by the fact he was from the same crop as the immortal Horse Chestnut.
James Armitage said, “Gold Tax was a fantastic horse for us. He was one of only three runners Goldkeeper had in South Africa from his first crop and he was a Group 1 winner and champion.”
James Goodman recalls buying Gold Tax, who was bred by Geoff Armitage’s brother Trevor, at the KZN yearling sale at the old Newmarket venue in Durban for R35,000.
He said, “It wasn’t particularly Goldkeeper which attracted me, but rather it was because Gold Tax was a nice specimen and he had tremendous character. I always like that in a horse. I remember later in my yard one of his quirks was he used to love drinking coca-cola from the tin!”
Gold Tax did not show much in work and on debut finished a 10,50 length fourth to Century Stand, who later became one of only two horses to ever beat Horse Chestnut when second in a Grade 3 race behind Clifton King with Horse Chestnut third.
After two more runs without a win Goodman gelded Gold Tax and he won next time out over 1000m.
In his next start in a Grade 2 Juvenile Plate over 1400m at Gosforth Park he started 14/1 and finished a 0,75 length second to Pablo Zeta, who later became famous as a perennial bridesmaid to Horse Chestnut.
Gold Tax then won a Juvenile Plate over 1700m before being taken to Durban for the Grade 1 Premier’s Juvenile Stakes (known today as the Premier’s Champion Stakes), which he won by a length at odds of 10/1 under Stuart Randolph.
His second Grade 1 win was in the Sharp Electronics Cup over 2000m at Clairwood as a late three-year-old, which he won by 1,25 length at odds of 4/1 under Weichong Marwing.
Sandown Stud, founded by James Armitage’s father Geoff, were the champion breeders in Zimbabwe no fewer than 24 times.
However, Gold Tax, bred on Trevor’s stud operation in Volksrust, was the one who got Goldkeeper going.
Goldkeeper was yet another stallion discovered by bloodstock agent extraordinaire Alistair Brown, who was also responsible for sourcing the like of breed-shapers Al Mufti and Fort Wood.
Goldkeeper was a particularly good find by Brown due to his world class pedigree.
He is by Mr Prospector out of a Northern Dancer mare whose damsire was Secretariat.
So those are three legendary stallions close up in his pedigree … but it does not end there.
Gold Keeper’s dam was in fact a half-sister to another legend in Storm Cat, who sired a record 91 yearlings that sold for US$1 million or more at public auction. Storm Cat’s highest cover fee was a phenomenal US$500,000.
Sandown were able to secure Goldkeeper only because his four wins were not in stakes races.
However, he did have very high speed figures.
Conformation wise James said he was not the biggest but was “very masculine”.
Goldkeeper moved to Cheveley Stud in South Africa in 2004 when inflation reached astronomical levels in Zimbabwe.
James relocated to South Africa in 2006 at the height of the Zimbabwean government’s expropriation of farmland.
He and his wife Joy brought 14 mares with them and were based first on a portion of land at Daytona Stud before moving to their current location.
Goldkeeper rejoined them and continued to be a highly successful stallion, although the fertility problems which had blighted his career eventually led to his retirement.
Goldkeeper produced four individual Grade 1 winners, although this is a misleading statistic, not only due to his relatively low numbers, but also because Zimbabwe did not have any official Grade 1 races.
His other three individual Grade 1 winners besides Gold Tax were Battle Maiden, Geepee S and Give Me Five.
Goldkeeper’s best statistic was winners to runners, which was a phenomenal 80%. In that stat he is second only to the great Western Winter in recent times in Southern Africa.
He also became a successful broodmare sire. One good example is provided by his daughter Secret Of Victoria, who is out of Cheveley Stud legend Mystic Spring. Secret Of Victoria, born in 2002, has produced two individual Grade 1 winners.
James inherited Nest Egg upon the passing of Trevor Armitage in 2013.
He said, “She was at one stage severely injured, it was a leg injury and she took years to recover, so that was why she took so long to have a foal. I brought her over here because she is the brother to Gold Tax and that is also the reason I have kept Law Of Success – she is the last of the family, so will hopefully continue the legacy.”
Nest Egg had three previous foals, but has had bad luck because only one of them ended up running. That A.P Answer filly scored one place in six runs.
James said he must have had a valid reason for sending Nest Egg to Wyle Hall, but he couldn’t recall it at the time of the interview.
The Armitages’ relationship with Paul Matchett goes back a long way, because the latter is also from Zimbabwe.
James said Law Of Success had been immature, which is why he was starting late.
He predicted he would be a “pocket rocket”.
So look out for a display of speed on Sunday.
Meanwhile, Pathfork is making a name for himself as the stallion whose progeny apparently have the best success in comparison to sales price in the whole country.
Sandown are also now standing the Cape Guineas winner Soqrat, a three-time Grade 1-winning son of the Australian sire Epaulette.
