Picture: Sugar Mountain gives jockey Devin Ashby the second leg of a treble at Kenilworth on Saturday (Wayne Marks).
PEDIGREE PROFILE -SUGAR MOUNTAIN
by Sarah Whitelaw
The late, great Silvano, recently crowned South Africa’s Champion Sire for 2021-2022, struck twice at Kenilworth last Saturday.
Not only did Silvano’s seven-year-old daughter Rosalie Runs capture the seventh race on the card, Silvano’s gelded son Sugar Mountain caught the eye when he won the sixth race, a competitive looking middle stakes over 1400 metres.
Four-year-old Sugar Mountain, a R425 000 buy from the 2020 CTS Ready To Run Sale, appears to be typical of the progeny of Silvano in that he looks open to improvement with age.
He is out of the placed mare Gettna, whose sire Var is enjoying increasing success as a broodmare sire.
Sadly, like Silvano, now deceased, Var daughters made their mark in a big way last season, with Var mares producing G1 winners in both Australia and South Africa during the 2021-2022 racing season.
Not only did In The Congo (out of Var’s champion daughter Via Africa) capture Australia’s G1 XXXX Golden Rose in 2021, but Var was also broodmare sire of SA G1 winners Alesian Chief (Golden Horse Sprint), Master Archie (G1 Computaform Sprint) and Thunderstruck (G1 Gold Medallion) in 2022. (Var’s maternal grandson In The Congo is apparently eyeing a tilt at the AUS $7.5 million Golden Eagle on October 29th).
In total, Var was broodmare sire of six stakes winners in South African last season, with these black type winners landing 10 graded or listed races. Var ended up sixth on South Africa’s Leading Broodmare Sires List in 2021-2022, with his daughters producing 62 winners last season.
(Alesian Chief’s sire Vercingetorix, like Sugar Mountain, was sired by
Silvano).
While Gettna never won a race, she took a strong pedigree with her when she retired to stud.
Out of the three time winning Fort Wood mare Derry Wood (and thus bred on the same Var/Fort Wood cross as 2013 G1 Golden Horse Sprint winner Contador), Gettna sports a pair of talented gallopers as half-siblings.
Her Rich Man’s Gold half-brother Royal Vintage showed high-class form in both South Africa and Dubai, with Royal Vintage capturing South Africa’s G2 Umkhomazi Stakes before becoming one of the best three-year-olds of his year in Dubai.
Getta also numbers G2 Peermont Emperors Palace Charity Mile winner Alderry (Al Mufti) as her half-sister, with Alderry arguably proving even more successful at stud than on the racetrack.
Alderry not only produced G1 SA Derby winner Al Sahem (by Silvano), she is also dam of G1 Summer Cup third place getter Al Mutawakel (by Silvano), as well as Listed Jacaranda Handicap queen Seehaam. The latter was sired by Silvano’s son Vercingetorix, making Sugar Mountain bred on similar lines to all of Al Sahem, Al Mutawakel and Seehaam.
Sugar Mountain is also bred on similar lines to the Silvano mare Tirza, another half-sister to Gettna. Tirza, like Gettna, failed to win but at stud produced G3 Diana Stakes/G3 Victress Stakes queen Goodtime Gal (by Royal Air Force) as well as the smart stayer Tirzan (by Seventh Rock).