No Rumour! Patience Is The Fine Art Of Hoping

The time-honoured adage ‘good things come to those who wait’ was underlined when Celtic Rumours landed her first stakes success at the tender age of five in last weekend’s Betway Gr2 Joburg Spring F&M Challenge.

Talented! Celtic Rumours’ Canford Cliffs half-sister Almond Sea (Pic – Candiese Lenferna)

The Sean Tarry-trained mare’s maiden stakes victory not only increased the lead of her sire Vercingetorix at the head of the General Sires log, it also added lustre to a dyed-in-the-wool South African female family which has enjoyed its fair share of success – that of the Drum Beat mare Terpsichore.

Bred by Normandy Stud, Terpsichore was a half-sister to Tribesman, a slashing chestnut by New South Wales who had the distinction of beating subsequent Durban July winner Beau Art in the Gr1 SA Derby.

Terpsichore’s dam Tramore hailed from the revered stud of Alex Robertson and although she produced seven winners from as many runners, it was her daughter who single-handedly continued the excellence of the female line.

Sylvie’s first – the smart stakes-winning What A Winter filly Sarah (Pic – JC Photos)

Celtic Rumours has, as her third dam, Terpsichore’s daughter French Muse, sired by the French import Melun. This son of Riverman had won the Prix du Ranelagh in his birth country before his importation to SA, and when put in training with Ralph Rixon, added the Gr2 Greyville 1900.

Retired to stand at Normandy, he failed to make much impact, siring just two stakes winners, one of which was French Muse, a winner of the Listed Vaal Bookmakers Handicap by the time she returned to Normandy. She duly became the dam of four winners, the best by far being SA Horse of the Year Winter Solstice.

Trained by Joey Ramsden, this son of Western Winter proved a top-flight galloper as a dual winner of the Gr1 Queen’s Plate, in addition to which he also claimed the Gr1 Gold Challenge and Gr1 Champions Cup.

French Muse bred three fillies, two of which, Diva and Simone, to the Lyphard horse Trigger Finger.

Diva was a smart sort, winning five and earning black type when third in the Chairman’s Cup. She became a successful broodmare for Normandy as the dam of the triple Gr3 winner Depardieu and Gr3-placed Matinee Idol.

Full sister Simone never raced but was retained by the stud. The success of Depardieu no doubt prompted a mating to his sire Dupont, with the resultant foal being a filly named Sylvie.

All in the family! Bravura, who is out of French Muse’s Centenary daughter Musing, was piloted by Anton Marcus to beat Noordhoek Flyer (Karl Neisius) in the 2010 Cape Derby (Pic – Supplied)

Enter Peter de Beyer, who raced Sylvie with the utmost patience. Unraced at two, she only broke her maiden at four, but given that she was a three-part sister in blood to a decent horse in Depardieu, she joined her owner’s broodmare band.

What she lacked in talent as a racehorse, she has more than made up for at his Black Swan stud, her first foal being the What A Winter filly Sarah. Very much her sire’s daughter, she proved herself a fine sprinter, winning the Swallow Stakes and reaching the frame in both the Gr2 Camellia and Gr2 Magnolia Handicap.

Sarah was trained by the Peter family, as is Sylvie’s second stakes winner Almond Sea. The daughter of Canford Cliffs made an auspicious start to her racing career when winning her first two starts by a combined margin of ten lengths, before turning last season’s Ruffian Stakes into a procession, pulverizing her rivals by over eight lengths.

Almond Sea subsequently lost her undefeated record when third in the Gr2 SA Fillies Nursery but regained the winning thread by inflicting a 2.50 length defeat on four male rivals over 1000m at Turffontein. Not seen out since July, she certainly has the makings of a fine sprint prospect.

Celtic Rumours is her dam’s third stakes winner and is by Silvano’s champion son Vercingetorix.

By the way, Silvano had already sired a Gr1 winner from the family before Celtic Rumours came along, that being Bravura, who is out of French Muse’s Centenary daughter Musing. She too, won just once at three yet came good in the Normandy paddocks.

SA Horse Of The Year Winter Solstice – a son of Western Winter out of the Melun mare, French Muse (Pic – Supplied)

Trained like Winter Solstice by Ramsden, Bravura won the Gr1 Cape Derby, ran champion Dancewiththedevil to a head in the Gr1 Gold Challenge and chased Igugu home in the Gr1 J&B Met. Also dam of stakes-placed Epic Poetry and Mazar-E-Sharif, Musing’s Kabool daughter Quetta produced Gr1 Cape Derby runner-up Sachdev to Silvano.

Remarkably, neither French Muse nor her daughters were by elite sires, yet when mated to the likes of Western Winter and Silvano, were quite capable of producing Gr1 winners Winter Solstice and Bravura.

Peter de Beyer clearly repeated a proven recipe when he sent Sylvie to sons of both powerhouse sires, with great success.

Not surprisingly, Sylvie’s success spilled over into the sales ring when her filly by Captain Of All fetched R550 000 at this year’s National Yearling Sale and has joined the stable of Gavin van Zyl.

Sylvie’s  newly-turned yearling colt, an own brother to Almond Sea, is “a lovely specimen,” according to De Beyer.

Peter de Beyer – smart move paid off (Pic – CRS)

Fortune favours the bold, so kudos to him for retaining Sylvie, a moderate race filly many breeders would have shunned as a broodmare. In fairness, he explained: “At the time, I was busy building up my broodmare band, so I wasn’t as discretionary as I would be today. Besides, she was from a fine family and showed quite a bit of speed. By sending her to Vercingetorix, I was hoping to get a middle-distance horse, but Celtic Rumours excels over 1400m!”

He reports that Sylvie foaled a filly by Kommetdieding this spring and has been pencilled in to visit Canford Cliffs.

“With Almond Sea showing so much promise, it’s probably worth another go,” he added.

Finally, it would be remiss not to mention that Terpsichore is also ancestress of the now departed superstar filly Gimme A Nother.

She traces to Terpsichore’s daughter Russian Muse, a one-time winner by the Nijinsky horse Russian Fox. Returned to Normandy, she was sent to Windrush and produced champion Mother Russia, the grandam of Gimme A Nother.