Secretive a plug for Saf breeding

Michael Lee
Sunday, July 12, 2009


Secretive produced a devastating turn of foot to pick up his maiden win, incidentally giving a nice plug to his little-known South African sire Fan Club’s Mister.



The South African-bred chestnut was shipped over from his native land to trainer Patrick Shaw by a fellow trainer-friend who also bred the strapping gelding, and was keen on testing the waters to see how the new breed went on another shore.



“The sire Fan Club’s Mister is a new stallion back home and my friend sent him here to have a crack at our races. That’s his only horse with me,” said Shaw after Secretive bounced back from a disappointing sixth following two seconds to win going away by 3 ¼ lengths from Unbeatable (Oscar Chavez) in the $65,000 Emirates Moscow Stakes Initiation race over 1400m on Sunday.



“He’s a big lazy individual and the blinkers turned the form around today. I think he should become a nice stayer.”


Secretive (Barend Vorster) scores a strong maiden victory on Sunday.

After sitting fifth one-off the fence, Secretive was produced by Vorster, who had ridden him at all his starts, at the top of the straight to sweep past the fading leader Mysterio like he was rooted to the spot.



Unbeatable was the first among the beaten brigade with Fortune Hunter (Saimee Jumaat) plugging on for third another one length away.



The white and red crossed-sash colours of the Secretive Stable were led in triumph for the first time on Sunday, and Vorster did not fail to pay tribute to their owner, though he was not too inclined, just like the horse's namesake, to reveal his identity.



“I rode a Group 1 winner for the owner who is a South African trainer and a very good friend of mine,” said the Singapore permanent resident.



“He bred the horse as well and it’s great to be able to ride him to his first win.



“He’s always shown us he had plenty of ability and he was today a lot more switched on with the blinkers. He will definitely get better as he goes over more ground.”

Interesting, but why the reluctance to name Terry Lowe as the owner ?

i would think kimberley a more likely venue than singapore based on fcm performance to date

He just needs some decent mares in RSA and maybe he'll produce some nice runners

isnt that true for all stallions suga?

bread and butter sire imho, too many of his sort around.

Yes, true for most stallions, but this guy deserves a chance, which he hasn't yet had..

why would you say he in particular deserves more of a chance? breeding nothing spectacular

There was a good horse - Horse Greeley - trained by Dick Mandela in USA who he rated highly, and he liked the pedigree. By Mr Greely

And Fan Club's Mister brings the sought after Mr Prospector line. Terry Lowe has invested a lot (time, mares and money) into this stallion - hoping he cracks a nice break. He is quite confident in the progeny

plenty mr prospector lines available with better pedigree/performance, strike smartly, lecture come to mind immediately. my opinion is that we need no more than 50 stallions in this country, apparantly there are more than 200.

nothing against terry lowe, but fcm doesnt add too much to the gene pool.

Yes, I agree that we currently have too many mediocre stallions in this country - it appears that especially in the last 2 years the numbers have increased exponentially

As a fan of Mr P sometimes you must realise that the stallion will not make it - I've more confidence in What A prospect than this one but I hope I'm wrong for Terry's sake.