The late Stagelight, the only son of outstanding racehorse and sire Montjeu ever to stand at stud in South Africa has been enjoying a tremendous run of success over the past few weeks.
Over the past two weeks, the deceased Guineas winner has had four winners, and remarkably, Stagelight’s most recent three runners have all won their respective heats.
Stagelight had just two runners at the Vaal racecourse last Tuesday –but both were winners. His first success at the Vaal last week came when his son Gone With The Wind broke his maiden, over 1700m, for Roy Magner and Ryan Munger. The Ian Sanne owned gelding was not winning out of turn, with Gone With The Wind having previously been in the money in each of his three previous starts.
Gone With The Wind’s paternal half-sister Wine Festival gave Stagelight a double on Tuesday when she recorded a convincing win in the afternoon’s seventh race for Joey Ramsden and S’Manga Khumalo. A winner of her last two in a row, the four-year-old filly has now won or placed in six races and she can build on her latest success.
Stagelight’s most recent winner came when his Gareth Van Zyl trained 3yo son Ovation Award picked up his second win, from just six outings, when romping home to a three and a half length win at Greyville on Friday night. Out of a mare by Indigo Magic, Ovation Award was rated good enough to take his chances in several feature races last season, notably the G1 Premiers Champion Stakes.
From just 31 foals (produced from very ordinary mares), Stagelight left behind 13 individual winners, headed by the smart stakes fillies Margot On Stage and Nonki Poo.
Sadly, Stagelight had just two full seasons at Oldlands, before dying in September of what would have been his third season at the Hemel ‘N Aarde farm.
The winner of the 2005 UAE 2000 Guineas, the ill-fated sire was a horse who lacked nothing in terms of pedigree.
Not only was he a son of champion racehorse Montjeu (whose 126 individual stakes winners included four Epsom Derby winners), but Stagelight also hailed from one of the finest families in the stud book.
He was one of no fewer than seven black type performers produced by his dam –the Shernazar sired stakes placed Zivania, with Stagelight’s siblings including group 2 winner Ivan Luis and Masaka Stakes winner, and 1000 Guineas third, Hathrah.
Stagelight’s second dam, the Mill Reef sired Maresca, features as the third dam of international G1 winners and sires Ectot (Turf Classic, Criterium International) and Most Improved (St James’s Palace Stakes), and she herself traces back in female line to one of the pillars of the stud book- Gondolette.
This is the family of such great sires as Hyperion, Sir Tristram, Mossborough and Pharamond II.
Original post on: https://capebreeders.co.za/latest-news/oldlands-stud-mourns-stagelight/
