A large crowd turned out to view Avontuur Thoroughbred Estate’s blue blooded new stallion Talk Of The Town on a wet and windy Thursday morning.
The handsome chestnut strutted and pranced before a knowledgeable crowd, with Talk Of The Town set to stand his first season at Avontuur this year (he had began his stud career at Winterbach Stud previously).
The lightly raced Talk Of The Town made just five career starts, but he won his last three in a row, with the colt having finished third on debut before running multiple graded stakes winner, and millionaire, Doublemint, to a head over 1200 metres.
After breaking his maiden by nearly three lengths over 1400 metres, Talk Of The Town went on to score at Kenilworth over 1400m. The chestnut really caught the eye, however, when he romped home to a two and a quarter length win on Sceptre Stakes day in 2018. Jockey Anton Marcus compared Talk Of The Town favourably with Var’s champion son Variety Club, while connections had high hopes for their colt before a series of injuries ended his career.
The impeccably bred Talk Of The Town is the only son of Avontuur’s late top sire Var standing at stud in South Africa.
Twice Leading Sire of 2YOs in South Africa, the G1 Prix de l’Abbaye winning Var has been responsible for 56 black type winners with his stars including such Equus Champions as Variety Club, Val De Ra, Vardy, Via Africa and Anything Goes. Other G1 winners sired by Var include G1 Golden Horse Casino Sprint winners Contador and Normanz, G1 South African Fillies Sprint queen Sommerlied and G1 Gold Medallion winners Eden Roc and Villandry.
An increasingly successful broodmare sire, Var is also damsire of such standouts as G1 XXXX Golden Rose winner In The Congo and South African G1 winners Alesian Chief, Master Archie, Tempting Fate and Thunderstruck.
His son Talk Of The Town is out of the blue blooded mare Street Wise -herself a daughter of G1 Dubai World Cup winner and outstanding sire/broodmare sire Street Cry. Sire of such champions as Winx, Zenyatta, Street Sense and South African Horse Of The Year Oh Susanna, Street Cry is also broodmare sire of more than 100 stakes winners including US champion, and G1 Breeders’ Cup Classic winner, Vino Rosso.
Street Wise is herself a granddaughter of outstanding broodmare Dancing Show (by Nijinsky II), ancestress of numerous top-class horses and granddam of outstanding sire, sire of sires, and broodmare sire Redoute’s Choice.
This is also the family of influential stallions El Gran Senor and Try My Best as well as former South African champion sire Northern Guest.
The very fertile Talk Of The Town stands for a fee of R12 000 in 2022.