TOP class two-year-old Majmu is likely to remain in South Africa to contest next season’s three-year-old classics, following her smashing victory in Saturday’s R400,000 SA Fillies Nursery over 1160m on Champions Day at Turffontein.
Majmu (Anton Marcus) made it three wins from three starts in this Gr2 contest, leaving the runner-up almost nine lengths in her wake – this after starting her career with a Listed success in the Ruffian Stakes and a Gr3 victory in the Pretty Polly Stakes. It’s hard to recall the last time a locally-trained young filly commenced her career at Listed level and stepped up a notch in class twice, unbeaten in all.
The Gr1 Allan Robertson Championship over 1200m on 24 May at Scottsville is next on Majmu’s agenda. She’s raced in small fields so far and will take on what is normally a maximum line-up of the speediest, up-and-coming fillies in the land, but considering her dominant and effortless manner of racing Mike de Kock and his connections will already be thinking, “Bring It On!”
Majmu: The dynamic grey has made rapid progress through the ranks. Gr1 success beckons!
Mike has shipped fillies of lesser talent to Dubai to compete successfully at the Carnival, but South African racing fans will be pleased to know that Sheikh Hamdan’s grey is unlikely to be among the stable’s select runners on the August 2014 shipment to Mauritius and the UAE.
Mike commented: “Majmu is a high quality filly, she’s already strong but she’s the type of filly that needs more time to furnish. I don’t think that flying her halfway around the world will do her any good. We’ve learnt from experience that the young horses don’t always travel well, the fillies in particular, and they have to be rushed to race fitness when they get to the desert. They’re barely out of their two-year-old careers when the export protocols force us to stand them in quarantine in various locations, where they miss an important amount of the exercise they would normally be given to develop as we’d like them to.
“Let’s add to this the fact that the travelling three-year-olds in effect lose their classic careers in South Africa – it’s great when they can win in Dubai during the Carnival and go on to European campaigns, but we’re going to be a bit more selective with Majmu. She’s a good classic prospect for next season and winning a Gr1 in South Africa or Europe is worth more for her pedigree than anything she can win at the Carnival, at three.”
Sheikh Hamdan’s representative Angus Gold won’t dispute Mike’s sentiments. Gold said that he had always felt that Majmu was an Oaks filly when he saw her at the Inglis Australian Easter Sale in 2013. She was winning on sheer class, this early, and would go further in time to come.
Majmu was bred in Australia by Arrowfield Stud, who sold her for AUS$300,000 to Shadwell Stud. She’s a daughter of champion stallion Redoute’s Choice and is the second foal of South American Group 1 winner Spontaneous.
