The Joe Soma-trained champion Got The Greenlight (Gimmethegreenlight), who is to be sold in the Kenilworth Winners Enclosure after the last race in Cape Town tomorrow, is set for a stud career and will soon be attempting to emulate four previous South African-breds to have become champion sire, Dignitary (Greatorex), Elevation (High Veldt), Jet Master (Rakeen) and Captain Al (Al Mufti) and one other, Dynasty (Fort Wood), who would likely have been champion sire if Gold Cup day had not been postponed in 2015.
 
The superstar bay helped his father become champion sire last season by adding two Grade 1s to the three he already had under the belt.

His turn of foot was deceptive because of his daisy-cutting action but was so exceptional he usually hit the front too soon.

He consequently developed the habit of idling in front in much the same way a superior sportsman would become bored by a lack of opposition.

That daisy-cutting action also hid from opponents how much extra he had and his idling habit never cost him a race, with the possible exception of the SA Derby.

When they came back at him he simply stepped back into gear and saw them off as he did in the Grade 1 SA Classic, the Grade 1 HF Oppenheimer Horse Chestnut Stakes and the Grade 1 Premier’s Champions Challenge.

In the Derby over the tough Turffontein 2450m he sliced through the field from last like a hot knife through butter to hit the front 300m from home. He immediately idled and did find extra when Out Of Your League (Elusive Fort) fought back but not enough and perhaps he did not quite stay that trip.

Those who believed the latter theory said the same after his Daily News 2000 win, but they were fooled by the shortening of stride and one-paced last few metres, which on that occasion were definitely down to him taking his foot off the pedal.

He proved it next up when running all the way to the line for a 0,80 length second in a Durban July run in record time. In fact the race was run so fast the first horse past the 200m mark completed the first 2000m of the race in a time quicker than the Hollywoodbets Greyville course record for 2000m set by the great London News (Bush Telegraph) in 1996.

Got The Greenlight was 2kg worse off then weight for age (wfa) with the winner Belgarion (Dynasty) but was 4.5kg better off than wfa with Do It Again (Twice Over), whom he beat by a head, notwithstanding the latter is one of the greatest July horses of all time.

Got the Greenlight’s owners’ dreams of winning the July means we will never really know exactly how good he was because in his four-year-old season he avoided the wfa contests against the best in order to protect his July weight.

However, he was Equus Champion Two-year-old male, courtesy of a scintillating win in the Grade 1 Premiers Champion Stakes over 1600m at Hollywoodbets Greyville, and Equus Champion Three-year-old male. He was also the Equus Champion Middle Distance horse in his three-year-old season.

Of the five most successful SA-bred stallions in history Got The Greenlight most resembles the great Dynasty in conformation.

Like Dynasty he was fitted with a sheepskin noseband to help him keep his head down.

Both horses had incredible acceleration but even with the noseband both of them sometimes still threw their head around in running, Dynasty doing it throughout in the July of 2003 and Got The Greenlight doing it throughout in the SA Classic. That they still won those respective races showed how good they were.

Winning the Daily News 2000 easily is the performance the pair have in common.

Got The Greenlight’s dam Command Chi (Commands) was an Australian-bred who won one race over 1600m at Kenilworth.

However, his grand-dam was Listed-placed and was exceptionally well bred, being by Kentucky Derby winner Fusaichi Pegasus (Mr Prospector) out of the NZ-bred champion older female stayer Giovana (Blues Traveller), a four-times Group 1 winner.

Got The Greenlight has one remarkable coincidental similarity in his pedigree to the record-breaking seven-time champion sire Jet Master.

Jet Master had the blue hen broodmare Bramalea (Nashua), dam of the great racehorse and stallion Roberto (Hail To Reason), as the second dam of his broodmare sire Rollins (Damascus).

In the exact same position in Got The Greenlight’s pedigree i.e. second dam of his broodmare sire Commands (Danehill), we find blue hen broodmare Eight Carat (Pieces Of Eight), an international broodmare of the year who produced five individual Group 1 winners.

That is just one example of the depth found in both of their pedigrees.

Furthermore, Got The Greenlight is the son of a Champion Sire, as were all of Diginitary, Dynasty and Captain Al.

The leading sire in SA this season, the SA-bred Vercingetorix, is also the son of a Champion Sire, Silvano.

It has to be concluded Got The Greenlight is an exciting stallion prospect.

Picture: Candiese Lenferna .