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Cape Town - A yearling has set a new record in the sales ring and made instant millionaires of two assistant farm managers.
The prize chestnut colt, a thoroughbred named Varlocity, fetched R1.5m at the Bloodstock South Africa (marketing and sales arm of the of the Thoroughbred Breeders Association South Africa) Cape regional sale held at Val de Vie Estate in Franschhoek earlier this month.
There was spirited bidding before the hammer fell the way of Gauteng trainer Michael Azzie, bidding on behalf of Adriaan van Vuuren’s Misty Meadows operation. The yearling has set a new record for the BSA sale.
This came as a surprise to Jaco Erasmus and his wife Carolyn, assistant farm managers at Varsfontein stud farm. “We were hoping for R800K, so we are really overjoyed about this,” said Jaco Erasmus.
The couple studied equine sciences at the Pretoria University of Technology together and spent a year working in the UK. On their return to South Africa, they spent several years working at the award-winning Lammerskraal Stud in Ceres before joining Varsfontein, where they have been for nine years.
They plan to reinvest their money in horses, while Varlocity currently shares his new home with half-brother Deputy Jud at Azzie's training yard.
Said Erasmus: “Varlocity is a great, big bull of a horse. He weighed 62 kilograms at birth and from the moment he got up, there was just something about him. With some horses you just know.”
