‘Every horse is personal to me’ – ex-Darley pedigree expert Judy Davies making bright start back in South Africa

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One of the biggest weeks of the industry year has also arrived in South Africa, where the Premier Yearling Sale is to be staged on Friday and Saturday.

Gearing up for her busiest auction so far will be a breeder whose name will be familiar to many around the world. Judy Davies (nee Brannigan) returned home a few years ago after spending 29 years working in Britain for Darley’s pedigree department.

Although British, her parents emigrated to South Africa when she was four and she lived there until turning 23. Davies’s small operation near Robertson in the Western Cape, Pendenra Stud, has a draft of five.

"This is my third year of selling, normally I have one or two but this is my biggest draft so far," Davies says, trying to stay out of the 40-degree heat from her post by the yearling boxes at Kenilworth racecourse. "Three of them are my own and two of them are from boarding mares.

"I'm sort of half stressed, half excited! It's just worry and nerves. The stud is slowly getting bigger, although I don't want to get too much bigger because I like to keep them at a certain level and every horse is personal to me."

The draft kicks off with a son of well-touted freshman sire Jet Dark (lot 31) whose grandam, A Star For Maria, is a half-sister to the dam of Hong King's star miler Voyage Bubble.

"If you go back it's a Distorted Humor family and I knew it from Darley," Davies explains.

"Someone told me the granddam was for sale and I just bought her sight unseen as I wanted her. Sadly I lost her at 14 but I managed to get her daughter, the dam of this one, back, from her owner.

"She's had two black-type performers, the three-year-old [Queen Regent] was second in a Listed race a couple of weeks ago and third in a Grade 3 just before that. He's a very late foal, he had some growing to do but you can see he's very athletic, very much like his sire."

Davies gave a quick summary of the remaining quartet.

"There's nothing bad I can say about any of mine this year, and I'm not just being biased!," she says. “They're all from nice sires and all their families have shown promise.

"Three weeks ago I bred a very nice maiden winner here called Lady Jean and she's a half-sister to my grey filly (81) by the first-season sire Master Archie. She's beautiful, tall and elegant.

"The What A Winter filly (36) out of one of my boarding mares is massive, with a walk to die for. Real Gone Kid, who is the sire of Lady Jean, is having his first runners and my filly (226) looks like a real early type, a powerhouse. Then the Malmoos (164) is a sold powerhouse as well, a very nice colt who belongs to another boarder. A lot of people like him."

Davies is assisted at the farm by husband Glyn and a small team, with five of her own mares and about eight boarders. Having managed the pedigree database for Darley, not many details get past her.

"I just know where to look," she says modestly. "I still look at pedigrees, looking for nicks, it's for fun and for my own use. But everyone's got their own ideas about matings, there's no wrong or right. You can mate the best with the best and still get something that can't put one hoof in front of the other."

While Pendenra began during very difficult times for the South African industry, last year's Premier saw spectacular trade with what was reported to be the highest ever average at a South African yearling sale.

The top lot, a Vercingetorix-sired half-brother to Grade 1 winner Snow Pilot, was bought by Greg Bortz for R9,000,000 (£405,000/€466,000) to equal the South African auction record set by Mike de Kock on a Silvano colt during the 2019 Emperors Palace National Yearling Sale in Johannesburg.

"It's been tough, everything went downhill and a lot of people got rid of a lot of mares," Davies says. "I managed to get through with mine and now it's picking up big time.

"I've just done my fifth foaling season here, so it's very new and I'm only a little breeder. If I can sell well, hopefully more people will look at my horses as a lot of people only look at the big studs."

Pendendra Stud’s grey Master Archie filly has taken the eye of Judy DaviesCredit: Race Coast Sales

A catalogue of 270 was registered for the two-day sale run under the Race Coast Sales banner, where the first session begins at Kenilworth racecourse from 4pm local time, followed by a 12pm start the next day.

Among the large draft from the Rupert family's Drakenstein Stud, one of South Africa's most significant operations, are two yearlings by European sires.

Heading them is a colt by Kingman (6) already named Roundaboutmidnight, bred from the unraced Frankel mare Kind Of Beautiful. Her dam, Melesina, won a Group 3 in France and has produced four British and Irish winners for the Ruperts' Cayton Park Stud.

Drakenstein also has a son of Cracksman (135) out of Verreaux Eagle, a three-time winner for Ed Dunlop from the family of top sprinter Art Power.

There are plenty of individuals from immediate Grade 1 families on offer who will hold great appeal. The action kicks off with the first lot from Ambiance Stud, a Danon Platina half-brother to champion middle-distance horse Royal Victory.

Winterbach Stud has a real eyecatcher in the shape of a half-brother to Double Superlative (197), who gave Danny Muscutt a marquee victory in the 2024 Cape Town Met. He is one of more than 20 offspring being offered by Vercingetorix, who broke records en-route to becoming last season's champion South African sire.

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