Wilgerbosdrift’s inform stallion Flower Alley came up with a new stakes winner when his daughter Flower Of Saigon won the Listed Betway Insurebet Jockey Club Stakes (2000m) at Fairview on Friday.Daughters of Flower Alley have won the Jockey Club Stakes the past three years running, with Flower Alley’s classy daughter Santa Therese having won the race in both 2021 and 2022. (Santa Therese also ran fourth, behind her paternal half-sister, in the 2023 Jockey Club Stakes).
Sixth in the G3 Final Fling Stakes last time out, the Glen Kotzen trained Flower Of Saigon picked up her first black type win with a convincing performance in Friday’s R200 000 feature.
Under S’Manga Khumalo, the six-year-old raced prominently early on, before dropping back to race midfield. Flower Of Saigon hit the front 200m from home and powered away to win as she liked by four and a half lengths.
It was a well deserved first black type win for Flower Of Saigon, with the latter having previously finished third in no fewer than six Listed races!
Bred and owned by Wickensburg Stud, Flower Of Saigon, who has now won four of 32 starts, is out of the Captain Al mare Miss Saigon and is thus bred on the same Flower Alley/Captain Al cross as reigning South African Horse Of The Year Princess Calla.
Her G1 Travers Stakes winning sire has made an excellent start to the 2023-2024 season, with Flower Alley having had a pair of winners at the Vaal a day earlier and is currently fifth on the General Sires List.