Maine Chance Farms (Pty) Ltd’s star sire Vercingetorix was the toast of Hollywoodbets Greyville on Saturday when his sons Oriental Charm and Cousin Casey finished first and second in the G1 Hollywoodbets Durban July (2200m).
Vercingetorix’s multiple champion sire Silvano had provided the first three finishers in the July of 2015.
Not only did Vercingetorix provide the first two finishers in the 2024 July, he is also the sire of Cape Eagle, who captured the G3 SplashOut 2200 at Hollywoodbets Greyville on Saturday. Vercingetorix filly Double Grand Slam added to her sire’s great day by finishing a game, and close-up third, in the G1 Ridgemont Garden Province Stakes, with the Vercingetorix sired champion Nebraas was game in running third in Saturday’s G3 DStv Gold Vase.
Oriental Charm became his sire’s first July winner when he won the 2024 G1 Hollywoodbets Durban July. A second consecutive July winner for trainer Brett Crawford, the progressive three-year-old captured the G3 Hollywoodbets Dolphins Cup Trial prior to his July triumph on Saturday. Under a strong ride from JP Van Der Merwe, the Vercingetorix colt rallied gamely to come back to defeat his paternal half-brother, and former Equus Champion, Cousin Casey by a long neck in Saturday’s R5 000 000 showpiece.
Bred by Cheveley Stud, Oriental Charm was a R375 000 buy from the 2022 National Yearling Sale.
Oriental Charm, who is out of the Greys Inn mare Souk, has now won four of ten starts and earned R3 484 374 in prize money. He is the ninth G1 winner for Vercingetorix, whose champion daughter Mrs Geriatrix had captured the KwaZulu-Natal Breeders Mile the Saturday before the Hollywoodbets Durban July.
Currently runner-up on the South African General Sires List, Vercingetorix has had another great season in 2023-2024, with his flagbearers also including such graded stakes winners as Cymric, Little Ballerina and Rascallion.
His yearlings made up to R700 000 at last week’s KZN Yearling Sale.