HONG KONG SUCCESS FOR BLOODSTOCK SOUTH AFRICA

Less than 24 hours after Bloodstock South Africa sold Jet Dark captured the G1 L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate, another BSA graduate made headlines -this time in Hong Kong.

The Varsfontein Stud bred Supreme Patrol, who raced under the name of Varallo in South Africa, scored a fluent win in Sunday’s San Po Kong Handicap (1200m) at Sha Tin.

Under jockey Blake Shinn, Supreme Patrol tracked the leaders early on before hitting the front with a furlong left to run and went on to score by a length and a half.

The gelding won three times in South Africa and ran second in the 2018 G1 Tsogo Sun Gold Medallion.

Supreme Patrol, a R2 000 000 buy from the 2016 National Yearling Sale, is trained by former champion South African trainer David Ferraris for owners Alan Chow Kwun Lun and Gordon Fung Ping Chung.

Sunday’s regally bred winner is a son of Avontuur Thoroughbred Farm’s perennially successful resident sire Var and top-class racemare and producer Covenant. The latter, a daughter of multiple champion South African sire Western Winter, won seven races including the G1 Majorca Stakes and two runnings of the G2 Sceptre Stakes.

From the same family as Master Of My Fate, London News and Kings Gambit, Covenant is currently responsible for four winners including this season’s top-class 3yo, and future Varsfontein stallion, Erik The Red.