Cheveley Stud’s former Equus Champion Broodmare Mystic Spring produced the joint sales topper at last week’s National two-year-old sale and this full-brother to the former Equus Champion three-year-old filly Bela-Bela will be trained by Gavin van Zyl, who had a monumental sale.
The grey Dynasty colt, who was knocked down for R800,000, was too immature to go to the National Yearling Sale and Vaughan Koster, owner of Cheveley Stud, said, “In the current climate it was pretty good money taking into account he was from an old mare. He wasn’t a wild sales horse, a bit on the small side, so we are happy.”
Van Zyl said, “That whole family are not big and he will grow. He has a lot of quality and a beautiful head and eye.”
He will be the second last sales horse of Mystic Spring’s glittering career. She has produced two Equus champion three-year-olds, Rabiya and Bela-Bela, as well as three other Graded winners, Secret Captain, Secret Of Victoria and Spring Lilac, and two Listed winners Touch The Sky and Rafiya.
She has passed on her excellence to her daughters. Secret Of Victoria has produced two Grade 1 winners, including Equus Champion two-year-old filly All Is Secret, and a Listed winner, and Spring Lilac has produced twice Grade 1-winner Snowdance and a Listed winner.
Mystic Spring’s last sales horse will be a Wylie Hall filly, who is currently a yearling. Wylie Hall stands at Cheveley and had an outstanding season with his first two-year-olds.
Three of the best of them, Twilight Moon, De La Cruz and Ponciana, have all been sold overseas. Twilight Moon is off to Hong Kong and the other two are going to Mauritius, although De La Cruz would also have been on his way to Hong Kong had he not failed the piroplasmosis test.
Those three sales will affect Wylie Hall’s figures next season, but Koster was pleased his progeny had attracted interest on the international market, who paid good money for them. Furthermore, the progeny of Wylie Hall, who was a slow maturing sort himself, are expected to continually improve.
Spring Lilac will continue Mystic Spring’s legacy at Cheveley and Koster is also pleased some other members of her family have found their way into the big stud farms like Drakenstein, Klawervlei and Varsfontein.
Van Zyl will also be getting the other sales topper, a Silvano colt out of Jet Master mare Cosmic Jet, who is a full sister to two Graded winners, including Grade 1 winner Love Is In The Air.
“He is a beautiful horse, a fantastic colt,” said Van Zyl.
He also clinched nine other horses, many of them well related. They included a R380,000 colt by Kingsbarns, whose passing is proving to be a tremendous loss as he produced Grade 1 winner and Equus Champion two-year-old filly Gabor in his first crop. Gabor is trained by Van Zyl.
Gabor had earlier lost to Querari filly Cockney Pride in the Grade 2 Zulu Kingdom Explorer Golden Slipper over 1400m and Van Zyl also picked up a full-sister to the latter for R420,000.
He was pleased too with a R110,000 Master Of My Fate colt, who is a half-brother to Grade 1 winner Little Miss Magic.
He got two Global Views, including a R450,000 colt who is out of an Al Mufti half-sister to the dam of Eyes Wide Open.
Van Zyl trained champion colt and now sire The Apache to two Grade 1 wins, so it was interesting to see him land lot 360 as this R30,000 The Apache filly is out of an own sister to the dam of The Apache.
Earlier, he couldn’t believe his luck when securing a nice Vercingetorix colt for a mere R25,000.
He also got a nice What A Winter colt for R65,000 and picked up a Greys Inn colt out of a Listed placed Australian-bred mare for R35,000.
All eleven of the purchases are already at his Summerveld yard and will be broken in by assistant trainer Opensea Mphlamvu.
Van Zyl said, “Opensea is a fantastic horseman and always breaks in our babies.”
Van Zyl landed some good stock at earlier sales in the year too.
He said, “It is exciting times for the yard.”
By David Thiselton
Image: The top seller Lot 267 from Cheveley Stud, the grey full brother to Bela-Bela by Dynasty out of Mystic Spring. The colt was signed for by Kestorm Investments for R800 000. (Picture: Candiese Marnewick)
