Avontuur Thoroughbred Farm’s leading sire Var, South Africa’s Champion Sire of 2YOs the past two seasons in a row, has enjoyed a tremendous last few weeks –and the G1 winning son of Forest Wildcat was at it again at Kenilworth on Saturday.
When Var colt Speedpoint landed the Listed Southeaster Sprint on Saturday, he became the third feature race winner in the past few weeks for his sire, with Var’s other recent black type winners including G3 Fillies’ Mile heroine Ghaalla and G3 Epol Magnolia Handicap winner Schippers.
The four-year-old Speedpoint, who is trained by Joey Ramsden, powered home under red hot Avontuur sponsored rider Lyle Hewitson to score a 0.4 of a length win in the R150 000 Southeaster Sprint, which is run over 1100 metres.
Another son of Var, Valbonne, took the fourth spot to give Var a 1-4 finish in the 2018 feature.
Speedpoint, who has now won or placed in 11 of 16 outings for earnings of R743 575, was not winning a black type feature out of turn –with the colt having previously finished third in last season’s G1 Computaform Sprint.
He was a R700 000 buy from the 2016 Emperors Palace Select Yearling Sale.
Bred by the Drakenstein Stud, Speedpoint is a 45th stakes winner for Var, whose previous stars include the Equus Champions Variety Club, Val De Ra and Via Africa, as well as the G1 winners August Rush, Sommerlied, Villandry, Contador and Normanz.
The Avontuur sire is currently the second Leading Active sire in South Africa (by prize money), with Var’s runners having already banked over R4.7 million in 2018-2019.
Var, whose progeny include more than 20 G1 horses, has an excellent draft on offer at the 2019 Cape Premier Yearling Sale, where Var’s ten yearlings include a colt (Lot 148) out of a G3 winning daughter of Galileo, a filly out of Met winner River Jetze who is a full-sister to G3 winner Rivarine (Lot 152), and a full-brother (Lot 182) to G1 South African Fillies Sprint winner Sommerlied.