Sandown Stud’s increasingly successful stallion Pathfork enjoyed some great results at Saturday night’s Highveld Feature Season Awards, which took place at The Galleria in Sandton.
Pathfork’s sons Main Defender and Royal Victory both picked awards on Saturday, with Main Defender named Champion Three-Year-Old Colt/Gelding and Royal Victory honoured as both Champion Older Horse and Champion Middle Distance Horse.
Remarkably, between them, Main Defender and Royal Victory have picked up seven black-type races this season thus far.
Bred by Jagessar Limited, the Tony Peter-trained Main Defender has won seven of nine starts with the gelding having already earned more than R2.259 million in stakes.
Main Defender, who is out of the Judpot mare Alessia, has won four graded stakes races this season, including the G1 Wilgerbosdrift H F Oppenheimer Horse Chestnut Stakes and G2 Betway Joburg Spring Challenge. The latter race saw Main Defender thrash subsequent G1 Jonsson Workwear Computaform Sprint winner Thunderstruck by no less than six and a half lengths.
His paternal half-brother Royal Victory, who was bred by Dr Marianne Thomson, has also enjoyed a wonderful season in 2023-2024. The Nathan Kotzen-trained four-year-old has won a pair of G1 races this season namely the 2023 G1 Betway Summer Cup and 2024 G1 World Pool Premier’s Champions Challenge.
To date, Royal Victory has won five of 17 starts and he has earned no less than R4,845,250 in prize money.

At the time of writing, Pathfork’s runners had earned more than R9.858 million this season, more than such notable stallions as Silvano, Trippi and The United States to name but three.
The former Irish champion has three lots on offer at the 2024 KZN Yearling Sale including a filly (Lot 75) out of G3 Sycamore Sprint winner Extra Zero and a three-parts sister (Lot 134) to Listed Betway Insurebet Jockey Club Stakes winner Flower Of Saigon.