How a fiery filly who survived a flood became South Africa's premier producer

A fiery mare who was lucky to escape several brushes with fate as a youngster has, in large measure, propelled the collaboration between Mary Slack and her daughter, Jessica Jell, to the pinnacle of South African racing as leading breeder for the season that will conclude on Wednesday.

The mare, Jet Master’s daughter Halfway To Heaven, is likely to gain her own award as South Africa’s broodmare of the year due to her first two foals, Grade 1 winners Rainbow Bridge and Hawwaam, in addition to helping land the top breeder designation for Slack, who owns Wilgerbosdrift Stud Farm in Piketberg, and Jell, who operates Mauritzfontein Stud in Kimberley in tandem with Slack.

As the daughter and granddaughter, respectively, of Harry and Bridget Oppenheimer, Slack and Jell are making more illustrious history for the family, which gained enduring distinction as the importers of eventual leading South African sire Fort Wood, a son of Sadler’s Wells, to Mauritzfontein.

The Oppenheimers bred many outstanding runners, topped by Fort Wood’s son, Horse Chestnut, who captured the South African Triple Crown and is viewed as perhaps the best horse ever bred in the country.

“We're thrilled about becoming champion breeders,” Slack says of the achievement with her daughter.

Wilgerbosdrift and Mauritzfontein bred Rainbow Bridge and Hawwaam, in partnership, along with other horses that have combined to win 124 races and 15 stakes from August 1, 2018, to last Sunday.

Altogether, runners bred by the farms in partnership have earned approximately R28.4 million for the season to date (about £1.62 million). Klawervlei Stud ranks second among breeders with total earnings of R24.4 million.

“In a way I feel very slightly guilty about it, putting both farm’s stakes winnings together,” Slack says. “Aside from this, we have two separate operations, but at the same time [we are] very close between mother and daughter; [we] have no rivalry and only delight at each other’s achievements.”

Together, Slack and Jell own about 150 mares and focus on commercial breeding. They breed many of their mares to stallions standing at Wilgerbosdrift or Mauritzfontein, but they often sell through separate consignments and occasionally retain some fillies.

“Unlike my mother, who would never sell a horse, we enjoy being commercial breeders because having a farm-bred winner belonging to someone else is just as exciting,” Slack says.

Halfway To Heaven, described by Slack as a “good-sized mare with good legs,” is without question currently the queen of their broodmares.

Her first foal, Rainbow Bridge, a rising five-year-old gelding by Mauritzfontein’s Ideal World, won this year’s Grade 1 Sun Met over likely South African Horse of the Year Do It Again and was just edged by that rival in the Durban July, which is viewed as South Africa’s greatest race.

Right: Halfway To Heaven's rising yearling colt by Silvano, a brother to HawwaamCredit: Wilgerbosdrift Stud

Rainbow Bridge notched a second top-flight success in the World Sports Betting Champions Cup at Greyville on Saturday.

Hawwaam, a three-year-old Silvano colt who is so highly regarded that he went to post as the Durban July favourite but was a late scratch after hurting himself in the starting gate, is a likely divisional champion after winning three Grade 1 races this year for trainer Mike de Kock.

Slack recalls that she acquired Halfway To Heaven, who as a daughter of the Rambo Dancer mare Pas De Basque is inbred 3x3 to Northern Dancer, as a five-year-old and sent her briefly to De Kock. By that time, Halfway To Heaven was a versatile Grade 3 winner who had prevailed in races from six furlongs to a mile.

Halfway To Heaven’s original trainer, Eric Sands, had recommended the mare after her owner and breeder, Gavin Walker, was forced by health problems to reduce his equine holdings. Sands recalls vividly how Halfway To Heaven initially was very difficult to manage after surviving several traumatic events.

“Before she got to me, she nearly drowned in a flood - the river came down [through the farm where she was located] when a dam burst,” he says. "Later she broke loose and went through a pole fence and snapped it off and hurt herself. Then she went to another farm and she got out and ran through vineyards with all the wires and cut herself to pieces.

“She only came to us when she was a four-year-old, and when she arrived, you couldn’t take two people into her stall because she was nervous and she was quite dangerous too. She put a couple of our blokes in hospital,” he adds.

However, Halfway to Heaven was talented enough to win four races consecutively at Durban and Cape Town in the 2012-13 season and Sands describes her as “quite a phenomenal mare.” She retired with seven wins in 18 starts.

Slack says Ideal World was chosen as Halfway To Heaven’s first mate, partly because the Juddmonte-bred son of Kingmambo and champion Banks Hill stands at Mauritzfontein. Leading South African sire Silvano, the sire of Hawwaam, was chosen for the following season.

Rainbow Bridge “was a tallish and not a very substantial yearling but athletic,” Slack recalls, and Wilgerbosdrift sold him at Bloodstock South Africa’s 2016 National yearling sale for R300,000. Sands, with his attachment to the dam, bought the youngster for a client and has developed his talents after Rainbow Bridge recovered from an injury incurred as a two-year-old.

Hawwaam: a three-time Grade 1 winner in South Africa this seasonCredit: Michele MacDonald

Hawwaam “was a beautiful yearling, though he nearly didn’t go to the sales because he had done the splits in the paddock and was lame for a while,” Slack remembers.

However, the colt recovered and was sold for R1 million to current owner Shadwell South Africa at the 2017 National yearling sale.

Slack says Halfway To Heaven produced a Philanthropist colt in 2016 who has been named Golden Ducat.

“The Philanthropist colt is a magnificent specimen, but sadly injured his hock so couldn’t be sold. I've put him in training with Eric Sands, who says he has ability but he isn’t sure yet that he will stand up to training,” she reports.

“Subsequently, Halfway To Heaven went back twice to Silvano. Thank goodness the first of them is a filly, so naturally she won’t be going to a sale,” Slack says. “The next is another beautiful colt.”

The filly, foaled in October 2017 and like the others bred by Wilgerbosdrift and Mauritzfontein, has been named In Limbo. The colt, who resembles his brother Hawwaam, will likely be sold.

Halfway To Heaven is currently in foal to Querari, a Group 1-winning son of Oasis Dream, and plans call for her to be covered after foaling by Slack’s new Wilgerbosdrift stallion Fire Away, an American Graded winner by War Front and a half-brother to Grade 1 winner, millionaire and young Lane’s End stallion Mr Speaker.

Bred by the Phipps family in Kentucky, Fire Away is out of Salute, a daughter of Unbridled and undefeated champion Personal Ensign.

Slack concedes that Halfway To Heaven is still known for her “iffy sort of temperament,” a trait that she may have gained from her own dam.

“Apparently Gavin Walker bought Halfway To Heaven’s dam when at the races one day he saw a filly throw off her jockey and canter a couple of strides before returning to stare down at the jockey in complete amazement. I think he bought her there and then,” Slack relates.

While Halfway To Heaven seems to pass along some of her family’s internal fire, with Rainbow Bridge particularly known for being highly-strung, especially when being transported for races, she has also clearly passed along superior quality.

In addition to her standing as likely South African broodmare of the year and her contributions to Wilgerbosdrift and Mauritzfontein’s pending title as leading breeder, she has also played a key role in both South African leading sire championships.

Hawwaam ranks as South Africa’s leading earner for the nearly completed season with over R5.6 million, giving Silvano a major boost to the top of the sire standings, where he is set to reign for the fourth time.

When Hawwaam’s bankroll is combined with Rainbow Bridge’s earnings of R4.27 million, Halfway To Heaven also will help make her late sire Jet Master, a seven-time leading general sire, the champion broodmare sire for the first time.

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