Gr3 Win For Clifton Stud’s Whatalady
| Gr3 Win For Clifton Stud’s Whatalady |
Peter and Jenny Blyth of Clifton Stud have had two Gr3 wins in a week, the second coming from their beautiful Jet Master filly, aptly named Whatalady, yesterday in the Gr3 Acacia Handicap.
The Stan Ferreira-trained Jet Master KZN-bred filly Whatalady showed that she is going places fast when upping her game yet again to score her fourth win on the trot when winning the R250 000 Gr3 Acacia Handicap in eyecatching style at Turffontein on Saturday.
Owned by Messrs J F and Laurence Wernars, she is a winner of 50% of her starts with cheques banked at all the others; Whatalady has continued to confound the handicapper.
On Saturday she showed further improvement and loads of heart and courage again when overcoming traffic issues to score a resounding victory in the hands of the experienced Weichong Marwing.
This was Whatalady’s first stakes victory after a relatively late start to her career, winning one of her four starts as a three year old, before being put away and brought out three months into her four year old year.
She looks likely to repay her connections’ patience and is getting stronger and better with each run.
Beautifully-bred out of Vogue by Model Man, Whatalady [pictured right as a yearling at Clifton Stud] was an outstanding speciman at the 2013 National Yearling Sale. Clifton always produce a draft of beautifully prepared yearlings every year, and Whatalady sold for R600 000.
She is a half-brother to the ill-fated Fort Vogue, who died in Dubai after a promising South African racing career with Mike Bass. Racin for owners’ Marsh Shirtliff, Chris van Niekerk and Marcus Jooste, Fort Vogue won the Gr2 Peninsula Handicap as well as his last start on local soil, the Gr3 Schweppes 2200.
His full-sister is in training with Mike Bass once more, a beautiful liver chestnut like her brother, Vogue’s Wood has has placed in all four of her starts over 1400m – 1600m, last time out by a neck.
Peter Blyth has retained a share in the filly along with Bryn Ressell and Marsh Shirtliff. Vogue’s Wood will be a valuable asset to Clifton Stud’s breeding paddocks after her dam Vogue passed away last year.
A magnificent chestnut mare, with a kind disposition, a flashy blaze and long white socks – Vogue stood out in the sloping green paddocks of Clifton Stud.
A fast filly in her day who lived up to her superb female line, she was a five-time winner who also placed second in the Gr1 SA Fillies Sprint.
Peter Blyth recalls the purchase of Vogue. “I bought a package of 25 horses off the previous owner to get Vogue, because he was packing up and I knew that this mare was the whole package; she would have gone for a high price if she had been sent to auction. So I bought them all to secure her.”
Vogue has been certainly worth it, achieving an outstanding sales average as a broodmare, with her progeny averaging R680 000 each for six sold – her top seller being R2,2million for Clifton-bred Fort Vogue.
She has left behind a two year old filly by A.P. Answer named Fashion Talk who sold at the 2014 Nationals for R200 000, and a Kahal yearling filly named Velvet Glove.
Vogue is a half-sister to several champions that need no further introduction – Highland Night, Night Watch, Prince Asad and sire Warm White Night.
Her daughter standing at Clifton by Divine Force, Divine Madonna, has produced two winners including Stakes Placed Madam Madonna.
Clifton Stud have also recently produced Group winners Bezanova and Print The Pounds. Congratulations to the team at Clifton Stud!
– extract sportingpost.co.za
