Skip to main content

Pictures supplied 

There are plenty of stories of horses who stood out in the paddock as youngsters and went on to become stars on the race track and one who is showing promise in that regard is the young Fire Away half-brother to Hollywoodbets Durban July winner Oriental Charm … and he is not even a week old yet!

Alex de Wet, who manages Owloon Stud for the German investor Christian Elleke, revealed that Oriental Charm’s half-brother by Fire Away was born on Sunday and he sent all of the  pictures attached to this article today.

He said, “He is a very well put together and has very nice conformation … he loves running!”

Owloon Stud is a boutique stud based in Rheebokskloof Valley, Paarl.

The young foal is a son of the 2010-born Greys Inn mare Souk.

Souk was a three-time winner from 1200m to 1600m and was a runner up in the Listed Sweet Chestnut Stakes over 1400m.

Oriental Charm, who was bred by Vaughan Koster’s Cheveley Stud, was her fourth foal.

Souk was later moved to Anton Shepherd’s Beaumont Stud.

Anton sold Souk to Owloon Stud after Oriental Charm’s July heroics.

Souk arrived at the Paarl Boutique stud farm in foal to Fire Away.

Souk has a very deep pedigree and boasts Spring Adieu, a Buckpasser half-sister to the mighty Northern Dancer, as her fifth dam. Spring Adieu is the second dam of the might Danehill.

Souk has Sir Tristram, one of Australasia’s greatest ever sires, on her top line.

Fire Away’s only stakes win was a Gr 3 over 1700m.

Talking about horses who caught the eye as youngsters in the paddock the most famous story in that regard is when the Irish bloodstock agent Billy McDonald, acting on behalf of Vincent O’Brien, Robert Sangster and John Magnier of Coolmore, paid a $100 bill at Claiborne to the yearling manager Gus Koch to find out his pick of the draft. Koch told him a little Bold Reason filly was the fastest in the paddock and when it was feeding time she would always be the first to arrive.

Speaking at the Cartier Awards in 2005, the Coolmore owner John Magnier took up the story, “I was on the way to breakfast one morning through the bar at the old Hyatt [in Kentucky] and spotted Billy’s catalogue in the trash can. Inside the catalogue was a pass-out for a filly that he’d bought the day before. He’d paid $40,000 for her and there wasn’t a lot of her,” remembered Magnier.

The filly was the one Koch had informed him about. The small Bold reason filly’s name was Fairy Bridge and on top of becoming Ireland’s champion two-year-old filly she went on to become the dam of Sadler’s Wells, one of the greatest thoroughbred stallions in history.

Oreintal Charm’s young half-brother’s galloping can’t be compared to any other youngsters just yet.

However, he certainly looks to know what he was bred for and from the pictures above and below looks to already have a lovely, big stride!