Fort Wood
Jackson
International Convention Centre in January, Dynasty rewrote the history books, by recording the highest priced colt and filly ever to be sold in South Africa. Maine Chance Farm’s lot 48, a colt out of a full sister to the stud’s own sire, Silvano, was knocked down for R5.2 m, to big game breeder, Piet du Toit. A filly, out of triple champion sprinter, Overarching, consigned by Highlands Stud, left the ring at R3.7m. “Dynasty recorded a staggering R1.72m average on the first night of the sale and finished up with a record R1.45m for 17 lots sold, says stallion manager, John Freeman. “He is enjoying his finest year both on the course and in the sale ring”, adds Freeman. Dynasty’s rise to fame is no chance happening, with his story having started many years ago, when Fieldspring Racing’s founder the late John Newsome, requested John Freeman and the Kannemeyers to buy him a Met winner that could make a stallion. Having come close to victory with the Jallad gelding, Free My Heart finishing an unlucky second to Angus in 2003, the search was on for a colt. Fieldspring Racing’s next horse was none other than Dynasty. With a win in the Daily News and Vodacom Durban July, Dynasty looked set to continue his run of success into the upcoming 2004 J and B Met. However , an injury sustained during his preparation saw him miss the race and out of work for six months. As life would have it, it wasn’t for Dynasty to win the Met for John Newsome, but instead , one of Dynasty’s sons, the handsome Futura. “Because Dynasty fulfilled 58
INTERNATIONAL RACE HORSE
John’s dream to own a stallion that he bought as a yearling and now one of his sons has won the Met”, says Freeman, “I believe “we finally did it”, he smiles. “We fulfilled his wish”. John believes that if Dynasty had been owned by anyone else besides Fieldspring Racing, he would have most probably been sold, lost to South Africa and campaigned abroad. Trainer Herman Brown Jnr, made a very tempting offer after Dynasty’s impressive win in the Vodacom Durban July. However John Newsome felt Dynasty was ‘a horse for the people’ and not for sale at any price. It was a very generous decision with what is proving to be, far reaching consequences for the South African racing and breeding industries. A champion on the track and a champion in the breeding shed, Dynasty already has one son standing at stud, Jackson, who covered his first book of mares last season. As a multiple Group 1 winner, he was rated the best classic horse in South Africa in 2012 and 2013. He is out of a winning American mare, Moonlit Prairie, who was imported into the country by the late Graham Beck. Moonlit Prairie is by American Champion racehorse and outstanding sire, Cozzene, who won the Eclipse Award in 1985, for being America’s Champion Male Turf Horse. As successor to the throne , Jackson is best described as “a breathtaking stallion with movie star looks”, according to Freeman and stands alongside none other than his own father, Dynasty, at Highlands Farm.