Wilgerbosdrift’s popular young stallion Soft Falling Rain is a half-brother to a potential Equus Award contender in the form of Let It Rain.
The latter, like Soft Falling Rain bred by Highlands, stamped himself a contender for the Equus Champion Stayer award when making much of the running to land the G3 World Sports Betting Gold Bowl at Turffontein on Saturday.
A first winner for new trainer Ashley Fortune, the five-year-old gelding pushed his earnings to over R1 million with a courageous one length victory over favourite, and G3 Caradoc Gold Cup hero, Just Cruised In, in Saturday’s R500 000 feature.
The Dynasty gelding has now won three feature races, and seven wins in total, with his previous scores including both the G2 Heineken Cape Stayers and Listed Java Handicap.
Let It Rain was one of two half-brothers to Soft Falling Rain to win over the past few days, with Splendid Garden scoring his career victory when victorious at Turffontein on Tuesday.
An unbeaten Equus Champion at two, and the first three-year-old to win the prestigious Godolphin Mile, Soft Falling Rain has made a considerable splash with his first yearlings this season.
The son of National Assembly was the fourth top sire, by aggregate, for the First and Select Session of the recently held Emperors Palace National Yearling Sale. Soft Falling Rain had 13 members of his first crop gross R7 205 000, with the sire’s average reaching an impressive R554 231.
His top lot sold, a colt called Broadside (Lot 208), was knocked down to World Wide Bloodstock for R1 400 000.