Orphan Filly Gypsy Fair Rewards Bush Hill Stud

Every winner is special to any breeder, but Gypsy Fair’s facile win by sixth lengths at Flamingo Park was especially so to all at Bush Hill because by all accounts this filly should never have been alive.

Warwick Render goes onto to tell us why this filly is particularly special and his wife Karin has retained a share in the filly. “While pregnant with Gypsy Fair her dam Secret Rose developed a debilitating leg problem which failed to respond to treatment. We were able to keep her reasonably comfortable and thereby keep her going for a period of time hoping we could get her to carry to term without distressing her. Sadly when she was still a few weeks off her due date, Secret Rose had a fall in the paddock and battled to get up, only managing to do so with some help. This prompted us to make the very hard decision that she had reached the point where we could not expect her to carry on. Having come this far we decided in consultation with the stud vets at the time, Dr Tanya Hughes and Dr Jess Dicks, that we owed it to the mare to give the foetus a chance. As such we anaesthetised the mare and performed an emergency caesarean – removing a lifeless non-breathing foal from the mare, who was then euthanased.

“After much effort we finally managed to get the foal breathing and onto oxygen. This filly was the first ‘patient’ for our newly built foal ICU unit and took days (and nights) of intense nursing to get her to where she developed a suck reflex and was able to nurse from a bottle, fortunately she inherited her mother’s fighting spirit. After a couple more weeks of nurturing and hand feeding she was well on her way and able to stand and nurse on her own. At this point we were able to find a kind old mare onto which we successfully fostered Gypsy Fair. From that day on she never looked back. With her spirit we are sure there will be more to come from this filly.”

Gypsy Fair has had six starts, a win and two places to date for her sire Newton. And her trainer, Leon Lotz who believes she will get better the further she goes.

Her dam Secret Rose (by Secret Prospector) was a two time winner and placed 10 times. She had produced three winners to date including Rambo’s Secret, a four – time winner who placed 19 times and the evergreen six time winning Big John. This is a very strong Black Type pedigree, the dam-line includes Bold Black Type Horses such as Redcarpet Style, Royal Approval, Carolina Cherry, Vodacom Durban July winner Classic Flag, Lady Windermere, St Lazare and National Spirit – it must be pointed out that it is impossible to name them all. Secret Rose is a full-sister to La Florida, herself a six-time winner including the Issie Shenker Memorial Listed Handicap. La Florida has produced five winners to date.

Newton is by dual hemisphere champion sire Danehill, out of Elite Guest by Be My Guest. A very typical bay son of Danehill, he won in Ireland 3 times over distances of 1000-1400m and achieved a Timeform Rating of 101 at 2.

His wins include the Marble Hill Stakes (Listed) at 2 as well as placing in the Gr 1 Grand Criterium. At age 3 he won the Lochbrown Stakes (Listed) and placed in two Gr 3 races and ran 3 lengths off the winner in the Gr1 Poule d’Essai des Poulains.

We look forward to much more to come from this special filly who clearly has a big heart!

See Bush Hill Stud’s KZN Yearling Sale draft at the following link, including a half-sister to Gr 2 winner The Mouseketeer. The sale takes place at Suncoast 5 and 6 July.

Contact Warwick 082 872 7799 or Karin 082 896 4809

Email: bushhillstud@futurenet.co.za
Website: www.bushhillstud.co.za
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