Polling ideas on Quid Pro Quo’s future

Team Valor International has asked its Facebook followers for advice on where the syndicate should race their latest acquisition – South African Equus champion Quid Pro Quo. The enthusiastic response to this call covers destinations as diverse as the Prix de la Arc de Triomphe, Dubai’s World Cup and the Hollywoodbets Durban July.

Comments made by Team Valor boss Barry Irwin, in confirming purchase of the filly, seem to suggest Europe is the preferred initial destination, sometime in the new year, with a 2026 Dubai Carnival campaign as a longer-term possibility.

Interestingly, because she is southern hemisphere-born, Quid Pro Quo will still technically be just a four-year-old in Dubai in 2026.

Good news for local fans is that the superstar might still be seen on local tracks before she flies out.

US-based Irwin confirmed the rumoured sale pending blood tests to confirm her eligibility to be exported.

“Depending on how soon she can be readied for a direct flight, she may run a time or two in Joburg with her current trainer, Barend Botes,” Irwin told Sporting Post at the weekend.

Six wins on the bounce

Of unfashionable parentage, the filly by Lance out of a winning mare by The Shiekh has swept all before her locally, winning the unofficial triple crown of juvenile races in Champions’ Season – the Allan Robertson Championship (Grade 1) at Scottsville and the Golden Slipper (Grade 2) and Douglas Whyte Thekwini Stakes (Grade 1) at Greyville.

In her only run as a three-year-old, she hammered a field of top-rated male rivals in the Dingaans at Turffontein – completing six wins on the bounce.

Though still young, Quid Pro Quo has been compared with some of the great South African female racehorses of the past – including Empress Club, the popular “Galloping Goldmine”, and Ipi Tombe, who was a major international success for Team Valor.

Quid Pro Quo was bred and owned by Gerald Kalil, a South African racing stalwart but not among the local game’s billionaire stakeholders. When offered for sale as a yearling, the filly failed to realise a reserve of R60,000 and Kalil decided to race her himself.

With private horse sales like this, a selling price is rarely revealed, but this one will surely be huge – probably topping the R20-million mark.

“It was not an easy transaction,” revealed Irwin, adding that Gerald Kalil was understandably reluctant to let go of a champion filly with international potential.