The Alan Greeff-trained Golden Palm was the first of three stakes winners bred by Varsfontein Stud at Turffontein Standside on Saturday and he might well have become the first East Cape-based horse to win a Graded two-year-old feature on the Highveld. (Candiese Lenferna Photography).
Drakenstein have broken the record for stakes winners in a season for the last three seasons in succession and gave themselves a chance of doing it for a fourth time when having no fewer than four new individual stakes winners this past weekend, Green Diamond (Gr 2 TAB SA Nursery), Legend Of Arthur (Gr 1 TAB SA Derby), Green Sapphire (Gr 3 Umzimkhulu Stakes) and Oxalis Gold (Gr 3 Byerley Turk)).
Drakenstein set a new record in the 2021/22 season with 18 individual stakes winners then broke their own record in the following two seasons with 20 and 21 individual stakes winners respectively.
They are currently sitting on 14 stakes winners for the 2024/2025 season with four months still to go, so they are exactly on schedule to equal their record of 21.
However, Varsfontein are on their heels with 13 individual stakes winners this season.
This weekend Varsfontein had Golden Palm (Gr 2 TAB SA Fillies Nursery) as a new stakes winner and both Main Defender (Gr 2 TAB Hawaii Stakes) and My Soul Mate (Listed 4Racing Caradoc Gold Cup) won their first stakes races of this season.
They are also just about on record pace and the duel between them and Drakenstein will create another point of intrigue for the remainder of the season.
