None Other than Mary Slack keeps the Oaks in the family

Horse racing in South Africa has a lot to thank Mary Slack for. Apart from saving the game with timely financial support in recent times, she has provided it with some of the best thoroughbred bloodlines in the world.

Her dedication to breeding good racehorses – and particularly female lines with endurance capabilities – will be one of the abiding legacies of “racing’s first lady”, as scribes call her these days.

Oppenheimer family

Of course, she was schooled in the art by her parents, Harry and Bridget Oppenheimer, whose Mauritzfontein Stud near Kimberley was the birthplace of umpteen legends of the local turf.

The Oppenheimer family’s belief in the value of fillies with stamina has been evident in them winning the SA Oaks no fewer than 14 times before the recent running of the famous old 2,450m race for three-year-old females. Operator 4Racing commendably, if belatedly, named the 2023 Oaks after Bridget and staged it on the same card as the established and prestigious HF Oppenheimer Horse Chestnut Stakes.

The entirely appropriate winning owner/breeder of last Saturday’s Bridget Oppenheimer Oaks was Mary Slack, with her diminutive filly None Other, trained by Lucky Houdalakis and ridden by Richard Fourie.

None Other’s breeder is Wilgerbosdrift & Mauritzfontein – the former being Slack’s own Western Cape farm and the latter now in the capable hands of her daughter Jessica Jell, who unsurprisingly caught racehorse fever early in her life.

‘The blood is always there’

After the race, Houdalakis told Sporting Post: “It’s an honour to train horses for South Africa’s first racing family. So, when they arrive and look like None Other did [tiny for her age], you shut up and carry on with the job at hand.

“The blood is always there. And when it’s coupled with a heart, then you have something to work with. When None Other started stretching, she had an action. She was a real racehorse – just not a very big one.”

The Oppenheimer-Slack-Jell dynasty’s breeding influence is well demonstrated by the entry list for the Grade 1 HSH Princess Charlene Empress Club Stakes to be run over 1600m at Turffontein on 15 April.

Firstly, Wilgerbosdrift & Mauritzfontein-bred fillies and mares make up a third of the potential field – three of the nine nominations. Secondly, weight-for-age conditions are a test of the best – as opposed to handicaps which level the playing field – and connections of “lesser” horses are probably shying away from the galloping power of the powerful studs.

Only one runner is in family silks, Mike de Kock-trained Desert Miracle, who won the Majorca Stakes in Cape Town in January, knocking Equus Horse of the Year Captain’s Ransom off her perch.

Also from the Mary-Jessica mother-daughter operation are Feather Boa, one of the unluckiest horses in training and well overdue a big win for trainer Stuart Pettigrew, and Marigold Hotel, who is likely to start at longer odds for Sean Tarry.

If any of the trio hopes to win, though, they’ll have to have the beating of Empress Club defending champion Princess Calla, who landed the Senor Santa Stakes in awesome fashion by 5.25 lengths in March in her first run for new handler Tarry.

Princess Calla was bred by Maine Chance Farms, another pillar of the breeding establishment.

Oppenheimer family-bred Oaks winners have been:

1962 – Dame De Coeur
1963 – Baccarat
1964 – Julie Andrews
1966 – Tsessebe
1967 – Little Audrey
1970 – Angelina
1971 – Free Style
1972 – Murena
1975 – Vicereine
1978 – Grease Paint
1979 – Torpedo Boat
2001 – Idle Fancy
2002 – Monyela
2013 – Cherry On The Top
2023 – None Other

ENTRIES

HSH Princess Charlene Empress Club Stakes, Grade 1, fillies and mares at weight-for-age, R1.25-million, 1600m:
1 BUREAU DES LEGENDE (R Klaasen) 60.0
6 DESERT MIRACLE (M F De Kock) 60.0
5 HUMDINGER (M F De Kock) 60.0
7 MARIGOLD HOTEL (S G Tarry) 60.0
4 PRINCESS CALLA (S G Tarry) 60.0
8 UNDER YOUR SPELL (S G Tarry) 60.0
3 FEATHER BOA (S T Pettigrew) 57.5
2 GIMME A SHOT (M/A Azzie) 57.5

EARLY BETTING

16-10 Princess Calla
5-1 Desert Miracle, Under Your Spell
15-2 Feather Boa, Gimme A Shot
10-1 Humdinger
16-1 Marigold Hotel
45-1 Bureau Des Legende