Star filly War Of Athena, a bargain R30 000 buy from the 2019 Emperors Palace Ready To Run Sale, picked up her third consecutive graded stakes win when downing Equus Champion, and fellow BSA graduate, Anything Goes, to land Saturday’s G2 Gauteng Fillies Guineas. (Miss Elegance, who ran third in the 2021 Gauteng Fillies Guineas, was bought back at the 2019 Ready To Run Sale by her owner Peter van Schoor).
Bred by Summerhill Stud, the Paul Matchett trained War Of Athena powered home, under Muzi Yeni, to land the first leg of the Wilgerbosdrift Triple Tiara by two lengths. Owned by Mr Roy Wentzel and Dr Rose Waterman-Wentzel, War Of Athena came into Saturday’s race having landed the G2 WSB Ipi Tombe Challenge and G3 Three Troikas Stakes at her two previous starts.
From the first crop of Cape Guineas winning sire Act Of War, War Of Athena is out of the Requiem mare Qaphela, herself a half-sister to two stakes winners, and further back, this is the family of G1 Gold Cup winner Desert Links.