Princess Of Gaul becomes Vercingetorix’s 23rd stakes winner of the season, a South African record. (Candiese Lenferna Photography)
Vercingetorix is no longer just the King Of The Sales Ring, but also the King Of The Racetrack, because in landing his first national stallion championships he has smashed the record earnings of R30,623,225 (restricted races excluded) that Gimmethegreenlight set last season.
The Maine Chance Farms-based Vercingetorix’s earnings to date this season are R38,358,456 (restricted races excluded).
Vercingetorix has also smashed the record for number of individual stakes winners in a season.
The Dean Kannemeyer-trained Clive Murphy-bred Fred Crabbia-owned Princess Of Gaul’s win in the Gr 2 World Pool with Race Coast Debutante saw Vercingetorix’s number of stakes wins for the season end on 23 and between them they have won 33 stakes races.
Gladatorian became Vercingetorix’s 13th Gr 1 winner.
However, on Sunday Vecingetorix was upstaged by Master Of My Fate.
The latter was responsible for both Gr 1 juvenile winners on the day, the Alan Greeff-trained Golden Palm and the Mike de Kock-trained Jan van Goyen, who won the Douglas Whye Stakes and the World Pool Moment Of The Day Champion Stakes respectively, both over 1600m.
They were ridden by Richard Fourie and Callan Murray respectively, and both showed why they are held in such high regard by their respective stables.
They both impressed as horses with big classic race futures, especially Golden Palm, whom Fourie rode with extreme confidence.
Master Of My Fate ends the season in third place on the national log behind the two big guns Vercingetorix and Gimmethegreenlight.
Interestingly, Vercingetorix is by the six-times national champion stallion Silvano, while Master Of My Fate is by the seven-times national champion stallion Jet Master.
