THE Jacobs-owned Maine Chance Farms in South Africa certainly appears to have found a successor to its great stallion Silvano (Lomitas) who was pensioned last October and died in August of this year.

The rising star is none other than his champion son Vercingetorix. In the past week he has been responsible for three group winners.

Taking centre-stage is the three-year-old filly Chansonette, and she had the distinction of landing her first blacktype success in the Group 1 World Sports Betting Cape Fillies Guineas at Kenilworth, the start of the classic season. In doing so she became her sire’s third individual Group 1 winner.

Bought as a yearling for the equivalent of about €27,500, Sabine Plattner’s filly was also bred by Maine Chance and is from a homebred mare, Champery, who is a dual winner and multiple stakes-placed daughter of fellow Maine Chance stallion Querari (Oasis Dream). This victory for Chansonette was a landmark for Querari, being his first stakes winner as a broodmare sire.

This was not the only involvement for Querari in the first classic of the season as he is sire of the third-place finisher Homely Girl. That filly, bred by Narrow Creek Stud, is actually out of a daughter of Silvano – so this is a cross that certainly works.

Vercingetorix’s four-year-old son Seeking The Stars, bred by Klawervlei Stud and sold as a yearling for about €55,000, completed a stakes double at the meeting when he won the Group 2 Green Point Stakes over a mile. A last start winner of the Group 3 Matchem Stakes, Seeking The Stars beat the returning Horse of the Year Rainbow Bridge and the fellow Klawervlei-bred Linebacker.

The group race double for Vercingetorix follows a Group 3 success for his three-year-old son Alesian Chief at Turffontein’s postponed Summer Cup meeting. Building on a listed race success, Alesian Chief took the step up in class well and is a homebred of Dr Marianne Thomson at her Ambiance Stud.

Vercingetorix currently leads the general sires list in South Africa, with his late sire in second place. Could he dethrone his father? He would seem to be well-equipped to make a real challenge of it. His first three crops of racing age include eight group winners among his total of 15 blacktype scorers. He is also sire of the Group 1 winning two-year-old Ambiorix, Group 2 Concorde Stakes winner Pomp And Power; champion stayer Nebraas, and a growing battalion of up-and-coming stars.

Champion

Vercingetorix was the champion three-year-old of his generation in South Africa, that being the 2012-13 season, and he also made his mark on the international scene, notably landing the 2014 Group 1 Jebel Hatta in Dubai. Group 1 winner of the Daily News 2000 at Greyville in South Africa, he was also placed in the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth II Cup at Sha Tin to Designs On Rome and Military Attack.

One of 25 Group 1 winners sired by Silvano, Vercingetorix ranks as one of his finest progeny. Silvano was quite the globetrotter himself, winning the Grade 1 Arlington Million in the USA and the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth II Cup in Hong Kong. A multiple champion sire in South Africa, Silvano is not a complete stranger in this part of the world.

Indeed, his son Lucky Speed stands at Michael and Sheelagh Hickey’s Sunnyhill Stud and his first crop will be five-year-olds in 2022. The Group 1 German Derby winner also broke the course record in the Grade 3 American St Leger at Arlington.