Clair De Lune calls the tune for new buyers at bustling Cape Premier Yearling Sale

South African racing has a cosmopolitan new investor from the world of showjumping as Rolf and Gloria Theiler swooped for a R3.2 million (£133,000/€156,000) filly at Thursday’s Cape Premier Yearling Sale.

Offspring of Trippi will be few and far between and lot 37,  by the 27-year-old former national champion sire, was being offered by his home at Drakenstein Stud.

Already named Clair De Lune, the bay had obvious residual value as the full-sister of Trip Of Fortune, winner of the Grade 1 Horse Chestnut Stakes over a mile at Turffontein last year in the colours of Drakenstein owner Gaynor Rupert. Trippi's most recent masterpiece, this month's King's Plate winner Charles Dickens, has just retired as his successor for the operation.

Born at the end of September, Clair De Lune is out of a Graded winner, Louvre, with further lustre to the page provided by the presence, under her third dam, of last year’s Durban July hero Winchester Mansion.

Gloria Theiler is South African, so the couple spend a few months a year in the country. Rolf is a Swiss entrepreneur and a distinguished show jumper himself who was also chef d’equipe for his country’s national team. As well as long-standing business interests, he founded a successful indoor showjumping competition and is chairman of the Laureus Foundation.

Clair De Lune was signed for by Jonathan Snaith, brother of trainer Justin and a key part of the leading Cape Town stable so it would not take a wild guess to imagine where the filly might be heading.

(Left to right): Tom Hodgson, Andrew Miller, John O'Kelly on the rostrum at Thursday's saleCredit: Wayne Marks

"I was involved with showjumping for a long time but I retired a while ago and have been out of the horse business," Rolf Theiler, who had bought another, much less expensive individual earlier in the session, said.

"My wife and I love horses in general, we used to train them ourselves back in Europe, we’ve had a break for a good few years and these are the first horses I’ve bought since then of any kind.

"We’ve known Gaynor Rupert for a long time and my wife and I said we would only get involved in a horse if it was from her. I’ve seen the stables, seen how professional it is. So it’s exciting."

Trade had looked encouraging during the early stages of an auction held right along the city's waterfront inside a vast convention centre. Only two individuals cleared the sum of R2 million last year but this time around there were four. 

One of those came through the sale's head of operations Justin Vermaak, who was acting on behalf of a three-strong syndicate including leading owner Laurence Wernars for a colt from the first crop of Hawwaam (63). The multiple Grade 1 winner in the Shadwell silks, who was transferred to William Haggas but did not race for the Newmarket trainer, is a half-brother to mighty South African racehorse Rainbow Bridge and is standing at Wilgerbosdrift. 

Maine Chance bred and consigned this colt, who is a half-brother to Sean Tarry's 2022-23 horse of the year Princess Calla.

"The pedigree is there to see and he's a really lovely individual," said Vermaak. "The owners have horses with [Johannesburg-based] Johan Janse van Vuuren so he'll head there."

That R2 million mark was repeated by a Gimmethegreenlight filly out of champion juvenile All Is Secret from Klawervlei Stud (110), whose page is littered with black type and includes the brilliant Bela-Bela. Craig Kieswetter, whose family's Ridgemont is among the biggest vendors at the sale, felt she could not be ignored for breeding purposes.

"It's a proper, historic South African family, the last out of the mare and a magnificent filly," Kieswetter said. "She's just the sort of horse we'd be looking for and she'll be a great addition to the broodmare band one day."

Drakenstein Stud's Happy Verse takes his turn in the ring in Cape TownCredit: Wayne Marks

A fourth came two lots from the end, with Form Bloodstock swooping for an R2.2 million Gimmethegreenlight colt which pushed figures to an all-round improvement on last year. All in, 119 of 123 sold, a clearance rate of 97 per cent, for an aggregate of R64,895,000 (up 45 per cent on R44,825,000 last year), an average of R545,336 (up 23 per cent on R443,812) and a median of R400,000 (up 33 per cent on R300,000).

There was another highlight in the Drakenstein consignment who had very much caught the eye of Johannesburg-based Reon Barnard, who signed for the Vercingetorix colt (84) Happy Verse, who is a grandson of the exceptional miling mare Captain's Lover, at R1.6 million.

Barnard, who has a number of business interests in South Africa, is also a trustee of the Gary and Vivienne Player Foundation and was seated alongside the household name golfer, with whom he has shared racehorses in the past. It looks likely the colt will also be trained by Snaith.

"He really was the best horse in the sale for me," Barnard said. "We like the farm he came from and we liked the family. I think he's very special."

Asked if Player could be joining him in the horse, he said diplomatically: "He could be! We're still sorting it that out. I've had quite a few horses around the country but I think what they're doing here in Cape Town is great to see and I'm keen to support it."

Querari, a ten-furlong Group 1 winner for Andreas Jacobs in Italy back in 2010, has proved a useful commercial sire for the owner-breeder’s Maine Chance, his progeny including the still active champion sprinter Rio Querari.

A daughter of the stallion (6) out of decorated staying mare Dynasty’s Blossom from Maine Chance was the first to break the seven-figure mark, knocked down to an entity named Phalaris for R1.1 million.

British owner Fiona Carmichael has also had some luck with that sire – a graduate from last year's event Handsome Prince is a big contender for Saturday's sales race at Kenilworth – and the owner's Westward Bloodstock banner signed for a R1 million Querari (41) with the portentous name of Black Cheetah from Drakenstein.

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