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Picture: Gimme A Prince wins the Grade 2 Cape Merchants easily (Wayne Marks).

The late Klawervlei Stud broodmare Pagan Princess enjoyed a halcyon weekend with two of her descendants, Gimme A Prince and Dyce, stamping themselves as horses with fine futures.
 
The Dean Kannemeyer-trained Gimme A Prince (Gimmethegreenlight) is a lightly raced four-year-old gelding out of Pagan Princess’s Grade 1-winning daughter Real Princess (Trippi).
 
On Sunday he ran in the Grade 2 Cape Merchants, which looked to be an ultra competitive 20-runner event, yet he put the race to bed a long way out and went on to win by an easy two lengths under Keagan de Melo.
 
He was carrying 56kg off a 108 merit rating and was giving 4kg to the promising runner up, the three-year-old We’re Jamming.
 
On Saturday Dyce, who is by Pagan Princess’s son William Longsword, finished runner up in the Grand Heritage.
 
He was running off a 101 merit rating and carrying 57,5 kg and looked all over the winner until his Lucky Houdalakis-trained stablemate Duke Of Sussex ran him out of it with a strong finish from off the pace.
 
However, Dyce looks the better prospect of the pair. This was only his third run after a layoff of close to a year-and-a-half, and he took a noticeably strong hold in the running, so might be looking for a return to the 1200m trip over which his three wins include a 4,30 length victory in the Grade 2 Umkhomazi Stakes at Hollywoodbets Greyville.
 
Pagan Princess was a Fort Wood half-sister to the great Victory Moon.
 
John Koster recalled Klawervlei going to a sale with the aim of buying ten fillies, but instead used all their money to buy just one filly, Pagan Princess.
 
They had to go to R1,7 million to clinch her.
 
Part of the thinking was that Victory Moon was by Al Mufti, so his half-sister would be a great match for Klawervlei’s resident stallion Captain Al, who was by Al Mufti.
 
Pagan Princess, trained by Joey Ramsden, only won one race, but showed promise before going wrong in her preparation race for the Oaks in KZN.
 
Her bad luck then went from bad to worse when she had a bad bout of colic upon arrival at Klawervlei Stud.
 
She had to have an operation to remove a lot of her gut followed by a complicated stitching up procedure and it was thought she might never be able to have foals.
 
However, in the end she proved to be one of Klawervlei’s finest ever broodmares, producing six foals for five winners, four of them feature winners, two of those Grade 1 winners and one of them a sire.
 
Two of her foals were by Captain Al, William Longsword and Really Royal.
 
The latter won three races, including the WSB Listed Sweet Chestnut Stakes over 1600m.
 
Her last race was in March this year and she is now in foal to Vercingetorix.
 
Really Royal is owned by stalwart international racing man Bjorn Nielson, the owner of the like of Stradivarius.
 
Captain Al and Fort Wood have turned out to be a lethal combination.
 
William Longsword and Malmoos are proof of it, both now standing at stud, whilst the multiple Grade 1 winner Captain America (also by Captain Al out of a Fort Wood mare) would also surely have been a sire had he not been gelded.
 
This weekend’s racing proved Pagan Princess’s legacy will be around for some time.
 
Owners will have an opportunity to buy into the family at the forthcoming Tattersalls Cape Premier Yearling Sale.
 
Lot 13 is in fact a Klawervlei Stud-bred three parts brother to Gimme A Prince, being a Gimmethegreenlight colt out of  Pagan Princess’ Trippi daughter, Dance At Dawn, who was only a one-time winner. 
 
On Sunday Gimme The Prince was carrying 56kg off a 108 merit rating and the handicappers were impressed enough to raise him  six points to 114.
 
He was off for nearly a year after running sixth in the Grade 1 Gold Medallion at Hollywoodbets Scottsville.
 
However, he has won three out of his four comeback races, including Sunday’s Grade 2 in which he emphatically exacted revenge on Resonate, who had beaten him by half-a-length in the Listed Southeaster Sprint over 1100m.
 
Resonate was giving Gimme A Prince 2,5kg in the Southeaster and on Sunday had to to give him 3,5kg but was beaten 2,90 lengths.
 
Gimme A Prince has only had six career starts for four wins and could be the new kid on the country’s sprinting block alongside We’re Jamming, who was only running on 1kg terms better than weight for age compared to Gimme A Prince. He could improve on that effort, as he was placed a bit far out of his ground and was making late inroads.