Rathmor Stud’s remarkable broodmare Spitfire Lady took centre stage at Hollywoodbets Greyville on Wednesday. It was a double delight as two of her offspring, Drive By and Donquerari, galloped their way to victory to give the team of trainer Louis Goosen, owner Mario Ferreira and breeders Rathmor Stud a double on the day.
Both horses are siblings to the Gr1 Cape Fillies Guineas winner and export Mississippi Burning, a daughter of Captain Al.
Five year old mare Drive By (by Rafeef), was the first to secure a win on the day, having consistently shown promise on the track and producing her fourth career win to date. She has won over distances of 1200m up to a mile. She also gave visiting jockey from Qatar, Mohammed Alabdulmalik, his first South African winner.
Next up was Donquerari (Querari), clinched a win under Brevan Plaaitjies to make it his sixth career win to date. From his last 16 starts, he has had two wins and only been out of the money on one occasion. He defeated Gr1 winner Good Traveller in the process.
Donquerari makes it 2/2 for dam Spitfire Lady. Image: Candiese Lenferna
Spitfire Lady is an import from Australia, a daughter of Hussonet. It is the family of Planet Rock and Sabrage. After producing a smashing Vercingetorix colt in 2022 which sold for R550 000 to Glen Kotzen at the 2023 Nationals, the mare has since returned to Rathmor’s own sire two years consecutively, the feature winning son of War Front, Declarationofpeace. His first crop of yearlings are being offered on sale this year.
Adding another layer of prestige to Spitfire Lady’s progeny is her daughter, Missisippi Burning. What she lacked in physical size she made up for in bucket loads of heart, as the small Captain Al mare didn’t let her size stand in the way of five wins, four them of consecutively including the aforementioned Gr1 Cape Fillies Guineas and Gr2 WSB Fillies Guineas in KZN.
She was exported and purchased overseas by Yulong Investments (who stand Varsfontein Stud bred sire Yulong Prince, formerly known as Surcharge) in foal to Frankel for A$1,375,000 in 2023.
The connections were associated with the brilliant Princess Calla, a Maine Chance-bred mare by Flower Alley purchased from owner Mario Ferreira. She has headed to America and has since been sold. She will likely be aimed at the Breeders Cup at the end of the year in Del Mar.
Congratulations to breeders Rathmor Stud on an extraordinary day at the races.
