Querari filly Furious Queen wins well on debut under Sean Veale at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth on Saturday and has a sibling on the BSA National Yearling Sale which starts on Thursday (Wayne Marks)
The Eric Sands-trained Lammerskraal Stud-bred first-timer Querari filly Furious Queen started at odds of 16/1 in the first race over 1000m at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth on Saturday, but she lived up to her pedigree and got up to win by 0,40 lengths under Sean Veale, just three days after her Alyson Wright-trained full brother Ultra Quick had won easily on the poly at Hollywoodbets Greyville.
The pair gave a boost to Lot 152 at the BSA National Yearling Sale to be held on Thursday and Friday this week and also to Lot 24.
Lot 152 is a What A Winter filly half-sister to Furious Queen and Ultra Quick.
However, it is not that she really needed a boost because she is also a half-sister to the smart Candice Bass-Robinson-trained Listed-winning Var gelding Future Variety.
The latter finished a 0,30 length second in the Gr 2 Khaya Stables Diadem Stakes over 1200m at the Splashout Cape Derby meeting in his most recent start and looks to have the scope to develop into a top sprinter.
The above-mentioned siblings are the progeny of the Parade Leader mare Furina, who only won one race, but she is turning out to be a top class broodmare. Her first foal was What A Winter gelding Fabian, who won a Listed race over 1400m and came third in the Gr 1 Mercury Sprint.
Lot 152’s pedigree runs deep as she is from one of South Africa’s most successful families and Lot 24, as will be mentioned later in this article, is from the same family.
The origins of this family are well documented but worth repeating.
The story starts with Anthony Kalmanson, a Durbanite who used to enjoy riding in jumps races in England. He used to look for fillies in Europe to bolster his broodmare band at Varsfontein Stud, which he founded in 1974. He would race them over in Europe and sometimes ride them in hurdles races before bringing them out to South Africa.
In the early 1970’s he bought a filly called Lucky Libra, who was by the Fair Trial line sire Great White Way. She won three races in England, one over 1600m on the flat and two over hurdles. Despite winning a hurdles race over two-and-a-half miles, she was destined to become the founding mare of a family whose most famous names are sprinters, although some members of the family are versatile.
Her first South African-bred foal Crown Sable (Peacable Kingdom) won nine races from 1000m to 1900m, including a Grade 3 over 1000m. Lucky Libra was then sent to Scott Brothers’ five-times champion sire Jungle Cove and the result was the filly Enchanting, who was a superb racehorse and became a matriarch at stud. She won two Grade 1s and a Grade 2 over 1600m, inlcuding the Gosforth Park Fillies Guineas.
Anthony Kalmanson passed away in 1979 and the running of Varsfontein had been handed down to his twin offspring, John and Susan (Rowett) . The twins, to their lasting regret, sold Enchanting. However, they always look for her family members at the Sales and are sure to be interested in Lot 152.
Enchanting was exported to the USA after her racing feats out here and stood at her owner Graham Beck’s Gainesway Farm.
She was later sent back to SA to stand at Beck’s Highlands Farm Stud, but not before she had produced four USA-bred foals, including the Spend A Buck filly Enchanted Dollar.
Enchanted Dollar won twice in South Africa before standing at Highlands. She produced two Graded winners including the champion National Assembly colt National Currency.
The latter was purchased for R500,000 at the National Yearling Sales and Beck took a share in him together with A Christoforou, C J W and N Hilt and J E H Clarke.
National Currency, trained by Mike Azzie, broke 1000m course records at Turffontein and Newmarket on his way to nine career wins, including three Grade 1s.
He was an Equus Champion two-year-old and an Equus Champion three-year-old sprinter.
The big 16-hands-2-inch bay earned the nickname “the horse with the movie star looks” and was still said to be maturing when tragically passing away as a four-year-old.
In his penultimate start in South Africa in the Grade 1 Mercury Sprint over 1200m at Clairwood, when still a three-year-old, he destroyed them by 5,25 lengths.
He then went over to Hong Kong and ran second to the legendary Silent Witness, who was named world champion sprinter for three years in succession.
Azzie had claimed before that race that had it been over six furlongs and not five the opposition would have been better off not pitching up.
National Currency’s next start in Dubai in a Listed race over 1200m on the dirt perhaps proved him correct as he cruised in by six-and-a-half lengths.
National Currency had the world at his feet and it was a devastating blow to Azzie and SA racing fans when his life was then claimed by a suspected snake or scorpion bite.
Azzie was once asked by the Racegoer when he had a runner in the Mercury Sprint to compare the favourite of that race to National Currency and he said, “National Currency could have stopped for a cup of tea at the 400m and still beaten him.”
That is how much he revered him.
Enchanting’s first SA-bred foal was Harry’s Charm, an ARCSA Champion two-year-old and three-year-old filly and she was later a Champion Older Sprinter.
Later in 1998, just a year before National Currency was born, Enchanting produced a filly by National Assembly called Enchantress.
Her eight wins included the Grade 1 SA Fillies Sprint and she was named Equus Champion Older Female Sprinter in 2002.
Enchantress was purchased in training from Graham Beck by Lammerskraal Stud.
Enchantress has produced the Grade 1 Thekwini winner and Equus Champion two-year-old filly Laverna and the Grade 3 Lonsdale Stirrup Cup winner Nevvay, proving there are still lines of stamina coming through from Lucky Libra.
Laverna is the dam of this season’s promising Justin Snaith-trained three-year-old Querari colt Underworld, who was a Listed winner as a two-year-old.
Furina was the sixth foal of Enchantress.
Wylie Wench, a Wylie Hall filly bred by Lammerskraal Stud, was the ninth foal of Enchantress and won the Gr 3 Acacia Handicap..
Susan Rowett (nee Kalmanson) of Varsfontein bought Wylie Wench at BSA’s National Two-year-old Sale for R600,000 and raced her.
At this Thursday’s first day of the BSA National Yearling Sale, Varsfontein are selling Wylie Wench’s first foal, a What A Winter filly (Lot 24).
Mike Azzie, not surprisingly, was asked to train Wylie Wench.
Azzie will surely be interested in Lot 24 and also likely in Lot 152.
Sally Bruss, now a director and the stud manager of South Africa’s newest stud farm, Paardeberg Stud, was behind the purchase of Enchantress for Lammerskraal, where she was the long-time stud manager.
She will also have lot 24 and 152 high on her list of yearlings to buy on the first day of the Sale on Thursday.
