The mighty seven-times national champion sire Jet Master won the Cape Guineas in January 1998
Sarah Whitelaw
Saturday sees the running of the G1 Hollywoodbets Cape Guineas at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth. This race has a long and storied history, with past winners of the Cape Guineas proving their considerable worth both on the track and at stud.
Past winners of this race include some of the greatest horses to grace the South African turf, with past Cape Guineas winners including such champions as Colorado King, Hawaii, In Full Flight, Politician, Empress Club, Horse Chestnut, and Variety Club, while last year’s winner Charles Dickens remains one of the most exciting horses currently in training in South Africa.
Cape Guineas winners, whats more, have also made their mark internationally, with Hawaii, Colorado King, Empress Club, Horse Chestnut, Jay Peg and Variety Club all making their mark on the global stage.
Hawaii, North America’s Champion Grass Horse of 1969, proved equally brilliant at stud. His near 40 stakes winners included both Epsom Derby winner Henbit and Kentucky Oaks heroine Sun And Snow. Three of Hawaii’s sons finished first, second or third in the Epsom Derby, with Hawaii himself remaining a force to be reckoned with in pedigrees today. US Triple Crown winner, and current boom sire, Justify, is inbred to Hawaii -while 1992 Kentucky Derby winner Lil E. Tee is out of Eileens Moment -whose dam Sailaway was sired by Hawaii. Sailaway also ranks as the third dam of US Horse Of The Year, and top sire, Ghostzapper, as well as the latter’s hugely successful sire half-brother City Zip. Between them, Ghostzapper and City Zip have sired nearly 200 stakes winners between them.
The once beaten Horse Chestnut, who won the 1999 Cape Argus Guineas by over seven lengths, sired G1 winners Chestnuts N Pearls, Lucifer’s Stone and Tilbury Fort, but really made his mark as a broodmare sire.
Among others, Horse Chestnut mares produced South African champion, and G1 J&B Met winner, Smart Call, and such international G1 winners as Fault, Star Catcher, Suggestive Boy, Cannock Chase, Zipessa and the full-brothers Johnny Bear and Channel Maker.
The Cape Guineas has proven a great barometer of stud success, with past winners Captain Al and Jet Master both proving outstanding stallions, as was 2003 Cape Guineas runner up Dynasty.
Winner of the 1998 Guineas, Jet Master was responsible for a host of champions headed by triple South African Horse Of The Year Pocket Power, globetrotting star sprinter J J The Jet Plane, and the likes of Mythical Flight, Yorker, In The Fast Lane, and Past Master. He is also the sire of Halfway To Heaven -South Africa’s Broodmare Of The Year in 2018-2019, 2019-2020 and 2020-2021. (Another daughter of Jet Master, 2010 Met winner River Jetez, proved a great advert for her sire, winning Dubai’s G2 Balanchine Stakes at the age of seven.)
Remarkably, progeny of Jet Master won the then G1 J&B Met from 2007 to 2011.
Seven times champion South African sire Jet Master, is broodmare sire of the Cape Guineas winners Kilindini and Double Superlative , while fellow Cape Guineas winner Captain Al, the first South African sire to supply 100 stakes winners, also made his presence felt on the Cape Guineas.
Captain Al was the sire of Cape Guineas winners William Longsword, himself sire of this season’s G3 New Turf Carriers Merchants/Listed Golden Loom Handicap winner Dyce, and Tap O’ Noth, with Captain Al’s subsequent Met winning son One World, who has made such a promising start with his first two-year-olds this season, finishing third in the 2018 Cape Guineas.
Between them, Captain Al and Jet Master, both of whom have also headed South Africa’s Leading Broodmare Sires premiership, sired 180 stakes winners.
Dynasty, whose second place finish in the 2003 Guineas was one of just three losses he suffered in his career, was another top-class sire to have won the Cape Guineas. Broodmare sire of the 2022 Hollywoodbets Cape Guineas winner Charles Dickens (as well as recent G1 WSB Cape Fillies Guineas winner Beach Bomb), Dynasty sired nearly 90 stakes winners, with his sons Futura, Irish Flame and Legislate all named South African Horse Of The Year.
Other champions sired by Dynasty included Beach Beauty, Bela-Bela, Just Sensual, It’s My Turn and Lady In Black.
His son Act Of War made amends for his sire’s defeat when he won the 2014 Cape Guineas, and at stud, has sired Equus Champion War Of Athena as well as G1 Golden Horse Sprint winner Battle Force.
More recently, Soqrat, winner of the 2018 Cape Guineas, is set to have his first runners this season, with the son of Epaulette having yearlings make up to R700 000 at the 2023 National Yearling Sale.
No doubt, the list of Cape Guineas winners who became top-class stallions will grow considerably in the coming years!
