Drakenstein-based stallion Trippi will be crowned National Champion Sire after holding on to his lead on the final day of the season on Sunday, despite Silvano’s son Marinaresco winning a R1 million race and causing a few anxious moments for the former’s connections.
Trippi entered Sunday’s eLan Property Group Gold Cup meeting about R800,000 ahead of former national champion sire Silvano.
The gap closed slightly when the Alec Laird-trained Silvano filly Arissa earned R60,000 for finishing runner up in the Gr 2 R300,000 Debutante Stakes.
However, two races later the Duncan Howells-trained Trippi filly Dawn Calling earned R120,000 for runner spot in the Gr 1 R600,000 Thekwini Stakes.
Silvano had two chances in the Gr 2 R1,25 million eLan Property Group Gold Cup over 3200m, but Balance Sheet finished just out of the money in 6th and Zafira was eighth.
However, the Mike Bass-trained Marinaresco gave the Maine Chance Farms-owned Stallion Silvano a sniff of a second title when earning R625,000 for his brilliant win in the Gr 1 Mike and Carol Bass Champions Cup. Trippi’s son Baritone earned R25,000 for fifth in the same race.
The next race was the Gr 2 R400,000 Gold Bracelet, where first prize was R250,000, and the Bass-trained Silvano filly Nightingale made a bold bid but could not catch the runaway winner Flying Ice. Trippi was now assured of the title.
The USA-bred stallion by End Sweep remains the most expensive thoroughbred ever imported to South Africa.
Cape Town-based stallion manager John Freeman has said a stallion of the quality of Trippi would never have been landed had it not been for the financial crisis in the USA.
As a three-year-old Trippi won the Gr 1 Vosburgh Stakes over seven furlongs at Belmont Park as well as two Gr 2s over the same course and distance. He won seven races in his career, five of them major stakes races.
In 2005 he finished eighth on the North American first-crop sires list. The following season he was third on the North American second-crop sires list and in 2007 was third on the third-crop list.
In 2008, the year he landed in South Africa, he finished 41st on the general North American Sires list and the following year improved to 34th and then 20th in 2010. He finished 23rd in 2011.
Freeman said Trippi’s progeny had initially been viewed out here as “forward” types and he consequently broke the South African record for having the highest number of two-year-old stakes winners with his first crop.
Freeman said, “That was initially his undoing, but trainers now understand not to rush them and give them the time they deserve and the rewards are coming.”
Trippi has produced four Gr 1 winners in South Africa, including five-time Gr 1 winner Inara, and he also produced the winner of the most expensive race ever run in South Africa, the CTS Million Dollar, won by his son Illuminator. A filly from his last USA crop won a Gr 1 in 2010, while a filly from his previous USA crop, Jealous Again, won the Gr 2 Queen Mary Stakes over five furlongs at the Royal Ascot meeting from pillar to post by an impressive five lengths.
David Thiselton
