Last season’s Champion First Season Sire What A Winter enjoyed a memorable afternoon on Sun Met day this past Saturday.
The four time G1 winner had a pair of big race winners, in the form of Agent Of Fortune and Dutch Philip, who won the Kuda Sprint and The CTS 1200 respectively.
The CTS 1200 proved a particular triumph for What A Winter, whose daughter Magical Wonderland ran third to Dutch Philip in the $500 000 feature.
Trained by Vaughan Marshall, Agent Of Fortune made an impressive winning debut when he stayed on smartly to land the R350 000 Kuda Sprint over 1000m, under the urgings of rider MJ Byleveld.
Bred by Dr Kritzinger, the colt had been a R240 000 buy from the 2017 March Yearling Sale.
Agent Of Fortune, a member of What A Winter’s second crop to race, follows the likes of Clouds Unfold and Vertical Descent as two-year-old winners representing the Drakenstein Stud resident this season.
Last season’s brilliant two-year-old Dutch Philip picked up his fifth career win, from just ten starts, when he bested the progressive Kasimir in the 1200m CTS 1200. The Rex Stud bred three-year-old, winner of the G3 Cape Of Good Hope Nursery last season, produced a devastating turn of foot to get up and the feature by half a length going away. In the process, he accounted for such graded stakes winners as Magical Wonderland, Sand And Sea, Woljayrine, and Green Plains.
Dutch Philip, who has now banked more than R4 000 000 in prize money, was a R460 000 buy from the 2016 March Yearling Sale.
His sire enjoyed further success at Scottsville on Sunday, when his son Winter Blues made it three wins on the bounce when victorious over 1000 metres. Bred by Dr Ian Heyns, the 3yo Winter Blues has now won all three starts since relocating to KZN and this small but gutsy gelding won’t stop here.
What A Winter, himself a triple Equus Champion, also enjoyed notable success at the 2018 Cape Premier Yearling Sale.
Yearlings sired by the champion fetched up to R1 500 000, with What A Winter’s top priced lot, a filly out of Irish Myth, knocked down to Shadwell South Africa.
Original Article Written By: Cape Breeders Club