Soft Falling Rain colt wows on debut


The death of Soft Falling Rain last year is appearing to be more and more of a loss to the South African breeding industry, and the ill-fated Equus Champion was back in the news this weekend, when his son Late At Night made a smashing debut at Kenilworth on Saturday.

Bred by Wilgerbosdrift & Mauritzfontein, two-year-old Late At Night showed his rivals a clean pair of heels when he romped home to a 3.5 length debut win for trainer Brett Crawford and jockey Randall Simons when victorious over 1200m on Saturday.

Out of the Fort Wood mare Clandestine, Late At Night (a R650 000 buy from last year’s Emperors Palace National Yearling Sale) appears likely to eventually continue his career in Hong Kong.

Late At Night is the 11th individual first crop winner for Soft Falling Rain, whose son Hardfallingrain made a pleasing debut when third on debut at Kenilworth on Saturday.

The globetrotting Soft Falling Rain, who shared his sire National Assembly with the likes of National Emblem, Flight Alert, and National Colour, has enjoyed a great run with his progeny in recent days, with his offspring Late At Night, Al Jahbath and Zephira Rain having all won last week.

His sons Al Jahbath, Alramz and Aqua Delta all hold entries for the upcoming G2 Durban Golden Horseshoe, while his daughter Mawsool has been entered for the same day’s G2 TKZN Golden Slipper.

Soft Falling Rain has two colts on offer at next week’s KZN Yearling Sale –a colt (Lot 165) whose dam is an own sister to this season’s East Cape Derby winner St Vladimir, and a half-brother (Lot 179) to this season’s promising two-year-old Mai Tai.