Jet Dark's exploits a recent memory ahead of National Yearling Sale in South Africa

Bloodstock South Africa’s National Yearling Sale is yet another piece of a hectic month of auctions around the world, with the two-day event taking place at the TBA Complex in Germiston, Johannesburg, on Friday and Saturday.

Alongside representatives from all the nation’s leading stallions, there are two more exotic names featuring in the draft from Mauritzfontein Stud,  the storied Northern Cape farm run by Mary Slack.

Craft Market (lot 76) is the first foal of Shepherd Market, a colt by the late Coolmore sire Mastercraftsman. His dam, a Listed winner of the Prix Coronation for Clive Cox, was bought by the Slack family for 230,000gns at Tattersalls in 2019 and made three more starts for Sir Michael Stoute. 

Mauritzfontein’s Mike Sharkey described him as "a nice, strong colt" who "moves really nicely".

There is also a son of Kentucky Derby winner Nyquist (297), another first foal out of a sales purchase, the stakes-winning Broken Vow mare Go On Mary, last sold for $110,000 at Keeneland.

Mauritzfontein is home to one of the handful of young sires battling out South Africa’s first-season standings in Danon Platina. 

The son of Deep Impact, a Grade 1 winner of the Futurity Stakes in Japan as a two-year-old, has six winners on the board and plenty of representatives among the 350 or so yearlings set to go through the ring.

Mauritzfontein offers one of his real picks in lot 396, a colt whose dam, Nother Russia, and grand-dam Mother Russia, were both Grade 1-winning South African champions. Sharkey added: "He is a well-balanced colt who is well worth a look."

Lancaster Bomber landed the first stakes winner among the freshmen through Rascova at Kenilworth in late January but there will not be many more opportunities to find offspring of the Tattersalls Gold Cup winner, who died a couple of years after arriving at Drakenstein Stud in 2019. 

Among a typically strong batch from that Western Cape operation is a colt out of the five-strong Grade 1 winner Inara (318).

A son of The United States topped the recent Cape Yearling Sale with Galileo's Australian Group 1 winner making an impression with his early crops from Moutonshoek Stud. The farm's kingpin Bennie van der Merwe recently described the chestnut as "arguably the best bred active stallion in this country" and his five-strong draft are all his offspring.

This sale has a rich history of producing stars, with the likes of Rainbow Bridge, Captains Ransom and future leading sires Vercingetorix and Dynasty going through the ring. The most recent of its alumni is Jet Dark, who cost just R200,000 (£8,900/€10,000) back in 2019.

A winner of this year’s Cape Town Met for trainer Justin Snaith, owner Nick Jonsson and Tommy Crowe, as well as previous back-to-back victories in the Queen’s Plate, he has now joined the Drakenstein roster.

Last year’s top lot was a Silvano colt offered by Varsfontein Stud out of black type mare Touch The Sky, who made R3.3 million (£146,000/€165,000) to Form Bloodstock.

The auction overall had shown impressive statistics despite the country’s economic troubles with the aggregate of R137million (£6,100,000/€6,900,000) not far off the 2019 record, with average of R357,000 (£15,800/€17,900) and median R250,000 (£11,100/€12,500) measuring as considerable jumps from the previous Covid-impeded renewals. 

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