The South African Stud book has been starved of Gr1 winning entires from the Northern Hemisphere that retire to stud here straight out of training. Horses of this calibre usually arrive “second-hand” after having failed to reach desired heights at stud overseas.

We have however been lucky enough to have benefited from the likes of Fort Wood and Drum Beat as direct-from-racing Gr1 winners.

And so it was exciting for South African Breeders to make acquaintance with (joint 2009 UK and Eu Champion) four time Gr1 winner Twice Over. A rarity.

The charming Twice Over was no oil painting but why would that disqualify him from making a sire?
Not if Northern Dancer, Mr. Prospector, Danzig, Sunday Silence and Danehill were the yardstick. None of them were far from perfect conformationally. What are the odds that they would have found much traction at our fussy yearling sales and then make then grade as they did at stud.

Twice Over is a big scopey horse with lots of leg and a plainish head. Planted in that masculine head are magnificent eyes. Looking into them is like looking into a clear pool in a mountain stream. He is a also a big horse with a short quarter. Which clearly didn’t hinder him. A lot of very good horses had a rear view of those quarters in important races. Those aesthetic drawbacks aside, Twice Over has a fantastically large perfectly angled shoulder and a massive bottomless girth, and he throws it in his progeny.

His stud career started like him, as winner of the Zetland Stakes, with success as a 2 year-old. From his first crop he sired Champion 2 year-old sprinter, Sand and Sea and he has bookended this with a win in the recent Gr1 Cape Derby with See It Again from his most recent crop to race beating an outstanding horse in Charles Dickens.

The Cape Derby is an American Derby distance of 2000m. I would estimate if it were 2400m or even a 2200 July distance, we would have witnessed an 8 length affair, as he had only started his engine late in the race and was flying.

Twice Over raced at the highest level in the UK, France and in the Breeders Cup in the USA. He won all the major middle distant races in the UK after starting his career as a two time unbeaten 2 year old and carrying that form to not only beat his peers, but beat four generations of them.

A durable warrior, who overcame a pair of front hooves that had to have been a hindrance. This was a sign of possibly why he reached the heights he did; a courageous horse like those great football and rugby greats who run through the pain barrier. I think he would have run through a brick wall for Sir Henry who called him his friend.

He shared his time in Sir Henry’s yard with the great Frankel and he raced in an era of greatness with numerous horses who would have been rated great had they not been contemporaries of Frankel.

Luck plays a huge part in racing, and being a Juddmonte homebred, he never went to a yearling sale. He would probably not have been a physical standout on any sale. Without detracting from them, he would probably have found his way into a lesser yard than Sir Henry Cecil, certainly those feet would have taken a lot of looking after at the hands of the maestro.

He is a member of a small select group of Sires in South Africa who are the only active sires that have been able to sire a Met or July winner. Twice Over, Trippi, Elusive Fort and Ideal World, isn’t that what we should strive to achieve.

Twice Over currently has a lock on the Cape Classics as he sired the winner of the 2022 Guineas and 2023 Derby, both for Nick Jonsson who has been a supporter from the beginning, being owner or part owner in most of his Grade 1 winners.

The current Derby triumph is quite remarkable as Twice Over accounted for forty percent of the entire field, only seen by the likes of Northern Dancer, Galileo, Urban Sea and Frankel at Epsom.

His stud career, apart from the one blip that his fillies are not of the class of his colts, should not detract from his legacy. The ‘great one’; Northern Dancer’s fillies were also not his strength.

Twice Over’s stud career has been all encompassing, siring a Gr1 Champion 2 year old, two G1 Julys, a G1 Queens Plate, a Gr1 Guineas and a G1 Derby with many Gr2s and G3s.

His son Do It Again is not only a Horse of The Year and Equus Champion 3 year old, he is the most celebrated Durban July runner in the rich and proud history of South Africa’s most famous race. This is an amazing resume for a current active Sire.

Special mention must be made regarding special achievements with regard to Twice Over’s achievements. Nick Jonsson stated on the rostrum that it was his intention to buy every Twice Over that took his fancy. He stuck to his guns and was owner or part owner of 3 his Gr1 winners. A third generation horse lover from a family steeped in the world of the horse.

This unique stallion is deserving of far more credit and respect than he currently receives!

Quad Erat Demonstrandum