Gr 1 SA Fillies Sprint winner Mia Moo was purchased in training by Drakenstein Stud and is pictured winning the Listed Blue Voucher Carry On Alice Stakes for them. She is due to be covered by Charles Dickens (JC Photos)
Sarah Whitelaw
A number of well bred and classy stakes winning fillies and mares have been retired to stud for the breeding season, with a number of these penciled in to visit some of South Africa’s most popular and exciting stallions.
Drakenstein Stud will be home to some top-class new mares, a number of whom will be visiting the farm’s homebred champion Charles Dickens.
One of the most brilliant horses seen on the South African turf in many a year, Charles Dickens (whose champion sire Trippi sadly recently died) will be the first mate of all of Be Merry, Gerbera and Mia Moo.
A daughter of Lancaster Bomber and the Captain Al dual stakes winner The Merry Widow, Be Merry was a smart performer whose best efforts included a win in the Listed Sweet Chestnut Stakes and a third place finish in the G2 World Sports Betting Fillies Guineas.
The beautifully bred Gerbera, a One World half-sister to the classy stakes winners Lesedi La Rona and Swazi Queen, won the Listed The Independent On Saturday Insider East Coast Cup. Her dam Barberton Daisy is an outstanding broodmare, who not only ranks as the dam of three stakes winners but is also granddam of the graded stakes winners Great Plains and Green Diamond.
Vercingetorix’s top-class daughter Mia Moo was a top-class sprinter, who downed subsequent G1 winner Asiye Phambili, as well as champion Double Grand Slam, when victorious in the 2025 G1 South African Fillies Sprint. Winner of four black type races, the regally bred Mia Moo is out of Captain Al’s Listed Irridescence Stakes winner Leeward, who hails from the same family as world-class sprinter Shea Shea.
Charles Dickens’ champion stablemate One World is one of South Africa’s most exciting stallions and the son of Captain Al will be the first mate of high-class graded stakes winners Elegantrix and Little Ballerina this year.
Both Elegantrix and Little Ballerina are blue blooded, graded stakes winning daughters of Vercingetorix -the broodmare sire of One World’s classy son World Attraction.
Elegantrix, who hails from the same female line as legendary stallions Sadler’s Wells and Nureyev, beat subsequent G1 Gold Medallion winner Good For You when she won the G3 Tote Godolphin Barb Stakes.
Fellow Vercingetorix daughter Little Ballerina was also a top-class two-year-old, with Little Ballerina winning both the G2 Wilgerbosdrift SA Fillies Nursery and Cape Racing Sales Cape Slipper in 2024.
Champion sire Vercingetorix himself will be the first mate for the beautifully bred stakes winning Symphony In White.
A What A Winter half-sister to G1 Hollywoodbets Cape Guineas winner and Drakenstein’s exciting new sire Snow Pilot, Symphony In White was produced by Captain Al’s dual G1 winning daughter Snowdance.
She showed huge promise at two when third, beaten less than half a length by champion Quid Pro Quo, in the G1 Allan Robertson Championship and trained on well to win the Listed Lady’s Pendant.
Trippi’s G2 Tote Woolavington 2000 winning daughter Little Suzie, a daughter of Street Cry’s outstanding daughter Oh Susanna, will be covered by multiple champion sire Gimmethegreenlight this year.
Paardeberg Stud, whose first runners have made such a big impression in South Africa, has retired the top-class sprinter Almond Sea. A half-sister to G2 Betway Joburg Spring F and M Challenge winner Celtic Rumours as well as Listed Swallow Stakes winner Sarah, Almond Sea was a brillilant two-year-old who won four of five starts at two by an aggregate of more than 20 lengths! Almond Sea won both the Listed Wilgerbosdrift Ruffian Stakes (by eight and a quarter lengths) and Listed Betway Swallow Stakes.
Almond Sea will be visiting fellow high-class sprinter Rafeef, one of the country ‘s top sires, for her first mating.
Wilgerbosdrift’s well stocked broodmare band, home to some of South Africa’s top matriarchs, is another farm retiring some exceptionally classy and well related mares. The farm’s exciting additions include such notable stakes winners as Epikleros, Kinda Wonderful, Rainbow Lorikeet and Spumante.
Epikleros, a Listed Jockey Club Stakes winning Master Of My Fate half-sister to G1 SA Fillies Classic winner Athina, will be bred to Wilgerbosdrift’s exciting new sire Danon Scorpion this year. The latter, a son of top Japanese stallion Lord Kanaloa, was a brilliant performer whose wins included a triumph in the G1 NHK Mile Cup.
Epikleros’ close relative Rainbow Lorikeet was a top-class performer who won no fewer than five black type races. The daughter of Querari, and winner of the 2025 G2 Bet With The World Gold Bracelet among others, will visit champion sire Vercingetorix this year.
Reigning champion sire Vercingetorix has sired numerous top-class fillies, one of which is Spumante Dolce, a three-parts sister to July winning champion Sparkling Water. Spumante Dolce, who visits Wilgerbosdrift’s inform stallion Fire Away in 2026, won her first three races headed by a triumph in the G2 Wilgerbosdrift Gauteng Fillies Guineas. She would go on to finish second in both the G1 TAB Empress Club Stakes and G1 Daily News 2000.
Gimmethegreenlight mare Kinda Wonderful, a full-sister to G2 Western Cape Fillies Championship winner Third Runway, was a smart performer whose wins included the 2024 Listed Irridescence Stakes. From the family of the exciting Cerro Blanco, Kinda Wonderful visits Rafeef in 2026.
