By Ada van der Bent
Will the fairer sex hold sway in this year’s Gr1 Cape Flying Championship? Fresh off impressive victories in the Southern Cross and Sceptre Stakes, the mare Asiye Phambili has thrown her hat into the ring in a bid to add to the fine record built by female winners, particularly since the turn of the century.
Australian-bred Laisserfaire claimed the 1000m dash as a four-year-old in 2001 and repeated at age five when she denied the exceptional sprinter Nhlavini in a hard fought battle. Twice voted the champion female sprinter, this daughter of Danehill subsequently claimed the Gr1 Computaform Sprint and a second SA Fillies Sprint, thereby proving that she had reached her full powers with maturity.
Although more than a decade would go by before a filly would again lift the trophy, it was certainly worth the wait. On 21 January 2012, Kenilworth racegoers were treated to another fierce battle. Billed as a three-way clash between champion mare Val De Ra and the previous year’s winner What A Winter, the race promised to be one of the highlights of the summer season. As a contest, it was all it was made to be, but after the dust had settled, it was the mare whose dazzling display of pace and power had carried her to victory, her sixth in a row.
Two years later, it was the turn of four-year-old filly Via Africa, who put up a dazzling display of front-running display to score by a length. As a broodmare based in Australia, she has transferred her brilliance to her offspring, notably the Gr1 winning sprinter In The Congo and the as yet undefeated stakes-winning filly Autumn Glow.
Twelve months on in 2015, and another triumph for the girls. Widely favoured to bring up a century of Gr1 winners for maestro trainer Mike de Kock, three-year-old filly Alboran Sea duly obliged, albeit by the narrowest of margins.
For five-year-old mare Carry On Alice, it was a case of third time lucky in 2017. Having run third in the previous two renewals, she held on tenaciously to by a neck in what was her fourth success at Gr1 level.
The most recent female winner was Run Fox Run in 2021, and she did it the hard way. On the lead from the jump, the Australian-bred mare kept up a relentless gallop to come home almost a length clear of champion sprinter Rio Querari.
Last year’s winner Dyce is back to defend his crown and will also attempt to add his name to the honours list as the eighth back-to-back winner. Those who achieved the double before him include not just Laisserfaire, but also powerhouse sprinters Signor Amigo, Flobayou and Nhlavini.
Flobayou in particular, dominated the sprint division in the mid-nineties, to the extent that he was named Joint Horse of the Year in 1995. Nhlavini meanwhile, showed age was no barrier to top-flight success when he completed the double in 2006 as an eight-year-old veteran.
Champion What A Winter, the sire of Asiye Phambile, also won two renewals, albeit not consecutively. Incidentally, should she succeed, she will become the second Cape Flying Championship winner for her sire, whose son Russet Air claimed the race in 2020.
However, one sprinter stands supreme as the only horse to have won the Cape Flying Championship three years on the trot, that being the mighty Sentinel. First time round in 1973, he travelled from KZN to defeat Cape blitz Lords by just over a length; returned twelve months later to humble a star-studded field by 5,75 lengths; and in 1975, completed the treble at the expense of such luminaries as Harry Hotspur, Archangel and Yataghan. Tragically, this supremely gifted horse proved infertile at stud.