Eight On Eighteen gets up to win the Langerman under Richard Fourie after running on strongly from last (Picture: Wayne Marks)
It was a halcyon week for Drakenstein Stud last week culminating in them breaking their own South African record for stakes winners in a season.
On Saturday they reached 21 individual stakes winners for the season, beating their record set last season of 20, which in turn had beaten their record set in the previous season of 18.
The horse who did it for them was the Justin Snaith-trained Eight On Eighteen, who is by Drakenstein’s late freshman champion stallion Lancaster Bomber, and he did it in the country’s probable best two-year-old classic pointer race, the Langerman, a Gr 3 run over 1500m at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth. .
Drakenstein do not own Eight On Eighteen, but one of the best patrons of the stud, Nick Jonsson, part-owns him which could be important because this horse could go on to have stallion potential.
Lancaster Bomber already has a Drakenstein homebred colt who is earmarked for stud duties, the Gr 1 Hollywoodbets Cape Guineas winner Snow Pilot.
Both Snow Pilot and Eight On Eighteen are out of mares by the champion broodmare sire Captain Al and have female lines that make them stud candidates.
Snow Pilot is out of the dual Gr 1-winning Snowdance.
Eight On Eighteen’s dam Sempre Libre was unraced, but she was out of the champion broodmare Mystic Spring, who is a celebrated matriarch. That makes Sempre Libre a sibling to a number of stakes winners including the like of champions Rabiya and Bela-Bela.
In fact Sempre Libre is a three-parts sister to Snowdance, because Mystic Spring’s daughter Spring Lilac (Joshua Dancer) is the dam of Snowdance.
On Saturday the magnificent looking Eight On Eighteen ran on strongly from last to get up in the Langerman under Richard Fourie, winning by 0,75 lengths from One World colt All Out For Six.
Unfortunately the race was not without controversy, because the 3/10 favourite, One World colt One Stripe, was scratched due to an elevated TCO2 reading.
TCO2 testing is becoming increasingly controversail due to the adverse effect it can have on exotic punters’ bets (see article later in the newsletter), not to mention the impact it has on owners.
The 18 stakes winners Drakenstein had in the 2021/2022 season won 25 races between them, the 20 last season won 35 races between them and the 21 they have had this season have so far won 30 races between them.
Drakenstein are also on the cusp of being involved in another record for the season as the stallion who stands on their farm, One World, has equalled the number of winners for a freshman sire i.e. the 22 set by his own father Captain Al in the 2004/2205 season. It is just a matter of time before he breaks that record.
Furthermore, Drakenstein’s familiar cornflower blue and white colours were seen finishing second in The Brittania at the Royal Ascot meeting last week. They were carried by Skukuza, a three-year-old colt by Blue Point out of Trippi mare Shingwedzi. Skukuza is a Cayton Park Stud homebred and the latter is the UK breeding operation of Gaynor Rupert, owner of Drakenstein.
Eight On Eighteen was a R700 000 BSA National Yearling Sale purchase and his two wins and two places from four starts has accumualted earnings of R402 738.
Jonsson owns him in partnership with Anyasec (Pty) Ltd.
