'The pedigree was really something we thought we'd need' - hopes and dreams for Cracksman's brother in South Africa

Suzette Viljoen may have named her fledgling stud after hopes and dreams of racehorse ownership and breeding, but it's hard graft rather than a head in the clouds that enables an operation to be founded and then flourish.

A champion owner, Viljoen's pink and blue silks have been carried to a great deal of success in South Africa, for example by brilliant race filly Captain's Ransom, a daughter of Captain Al who won six times at the highest level and now resides at Hopes And Dreams Stud for her broodmare career.

On naming the stud, Viljoen said: "I was sitting and thinking that it's your hope and dreams to buy a racehorse and send it into training. You've got hopes your horse will run well and your dream is to win a Group 1. 

"Myself and Basie [husband] started in racing only about six years ago. We always loved the sport and went racing, but I got my first horse just half a dozen years ago. That was in Kimberley because that was the closest to home."

Wellington, in the Western Cape Winelands and where Hopes And Dreams is based, is about 900 km south-west of Kimberley, the capital of Northern Cape Province.

Suzette Viljoen of Hopes And Dreams Stud

Viljoen said "My husband and I run the stud. It was about two years ago that we started looking at farms and we looked at this one for about a year before we decided to buy. We've got about 110 mares at the stud at the moment."

Viljoen has taken another step up the rung of stud ownership by securing an exciting stallion prospect in Frantastic, an Anthony Oppenheimer homebred and winning Frankel brother to world champion Cracksman, himself sire of last year's Prix du Jockey Club and Arc hero Ace Impact. 

In addition to being an imposing physical specimen, the five-year-old Frantastic has an excellent pedigree, above and beyond his illustrious older brother. Their stakes-winning Pivotal dam Rhadegunda is a granddaughter of 1,000 Guineas and Sussex Stakes heroine On The House and from the fabled family of Coronation Stakes winner Rebecca Sharp. 

It is also the family of Oppenheimer's champion Golden Horn, winner of the Derby, Eclipse, Irish Champion Stakes and Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe in 2015, as well as Ribblesdale Stakes winner and Oaks third Frankly Darling and Australian star Vow And Declare, winner of the 2019 Melbourne Cup. 

Cracksman, sire of the brilliant Ace ImpactCredit: Edward Whitaker

"An agent phoned and asked if we were interested in him," Viljoen said of her new stallion. 

"We loved his pedigree and obviously the specimen too, but the pedigree was really something we thought we'd need in South Africa. 

"He hasn't arrived on the farm yet but he's in the country going through quarantine. I think he should be on the farm in two or three weeks' time."

She added: "We'll definitely support him and we've already put down on paper 33 of our mares. It could possibly go up to 40, I'm still structuring it. The very positive thing about Frantastic is that he's compatible with most of the mares in South Africa."

Frantastic was lightly raced with just seven starts in two seasons of action. He won on his second start as a two-year-old for John and Thady Gosden and scored again in a Newbury handicap the following August. 

The seventh foal out of Rhadegunda, he is a half-brother to Solario Stakes winner Fantastic Moon, by Dalakhani. 

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