Royal Pleasure Makes It Five Winners In March For Visionaire

Royal Pleasure Makes It Five Winners In March For Visionaire

Gr1 King’s Bishop winner, Visionaire, has got his stallion career off to great heights with five winners achieved in March alone, including from his small crop of first foals running in the USA.

The Summerhill resident son of Grand Slam has a particularly smart filly bred by Barry Irwin’s Team Valor, who have retained a share in the talented chestnut two year old along with the 3A Racing Syndicate and Mrs Vanashree and Mr Anant Singh.

Royal Pleasure has carried the accolade of being the first winner in South Africa for her sire, and she took it one step further yesterday – remaining unbeaten from two starts, and winning the King’s Pact Stakes with frightening ease – leading all the way from the jump out of the starting stalls.

The recognisable green colours with the red chevron of Team Valor were in action not only at Scottsville but in Dubai at Meydan over the weekend, with four year old Euro Charline placing fourth on Dubai World Cup day in the Gr1 Dubai Turf.

Team Valor have been strongly associated with a number of South African successes overseas, including another KZN-bred in Gypsy’s Warning and Vodacom Durban July winner Ipi Tombe, as well as the Gr1 Kentucky Derby and Dubai World Cup winner Animal Kingdom.

Royal Pleasure is a pure KZN-bred through and through, being out of King Of Kings mare Royal Purse.

An aptly named filly for first time owners 3A Racing Syndicate, Royal Pleasure has won both her starts in domineering fashion – her first on debut by almost a smashing seven lengths was enough for everyone to sit up and take notice.

She followed this up yesterday with a brilliant win over the same course and distance, 1000m, in the King’s Pact Stakes (Non-Black Type) by almost three lengths under Greg Cheyne.

Her dam Royal Purse has gone on to produce a colt by Visionaire in 2013. Royal Purse is out of Gr2 winning Taineberry, making her a half-sister to Jalberry.

Wesley Bowman, heading up and representing the vibrant young 3A Racing Syndicate shared his excitement about Royal Pleasure and their future plans for her: “We are very excited about this filly. We always expected a lot from her, but to win a maiden and to follow through with another win is always a big test and it was quite a big relief to be honest!”

“Our plan was originally to run her in the Strelitzia Stakes next, but with her prep and the way she was breezing along – she actually doesnt take a lot of work; so we intend to take her straight from this run and put her into the Gr1 Allan Robertson at Scottsville at the end of May over 1200m.

“Barry Irwin gave me a call a few weeks ago after we got involved in the filly, sharing his sentiments of what he thought about the filly as he bred her. Barry is under the impression based on her pedigree that she should get 1400m easily as a two year old, and perhaps a bit over further as she gets older. I dont think the 1200m trip in the Allan Robertson will be a question mark.

“She has obviously proved herself at the 1000m, but she has such an amazing cruising speed. Of course Visionaire is looking quite a bright prospect for KZN Breeding, he recently had a nice winner for Doug Campbell with Lala who won by about five lengths at Greyville, and Jet Air in the Cape who won second time out very well for Mike Bass, Marsh Shirtliff and Bryn Russell. With the National Yearling Sales just around the corner, the Visionaire’s should boost that sale immensely.”

Barry Irwin sent Visionaire to South Africa after covering just a single season in the USA, which has already yielded a Black Type winner and a place with Bacopa Breeze and Outlook respectively. Trident Hero and My Pal Shawn (his fourth win to date) both won last week, over distances of 1100m – 1300m in the States.

Visionaire’s yearlings were hotly received at the 2014 National Yearling Sale, with a magnificent grey filly reaching R1,4million – a half-sister to No Worries, and a colt Diamontaire bred by Somerset Stud selling for R600 000.

Wesley is justifiably enthusiastic at their filly’s fantastic future prospects. “I cannot tell you just how excited we are to have this wonderful horse, some of the guys involved in this syndicate – this is their first horse. Traditionally, we have always leased our horses as we were learning the game, and Royal Pleasure is the first one that we have actually bought shares in and first horse we own is a dream come true!

“Its fantastic to be involved with the likes of Team Valor in this very exciting horse and to lead a horse into the winners enclosure with their colours.”

Royal Pleasure has been entered for the KZN Breeders Series to be run on 28 June 2015, where she currently tops the log for the Juvenile colts and fillies with a current point of 16, ahead of Stakes placed Just As I Said in second place with 13 points.

Well done to all of the winning connections and we have no doubt the Visionaire’s will once again be dominating the sires log at the National Yearling Sales based on his current results – its indeed exciting times ahead for Summerhill Stud and KZN Breeding!