Meet the YGT Horse!

Acquired by the staff of Your Golf Travel.com. Your Golf Travel was a nicely bred unraced, unprecocious 3 year old filly who has taken a while to come to hand. Sired by the multiple group and patterned Godolphin winner Bertolini and out of listed class dam Scottish Spice, we are hopeful that she will mature into a progressive handicapper as her career develops.

Bertolini was owned by Sheik Mohammed and has produced alot of winners as a sire over both grass and the dirt. She wears our familar “Palatinate Group” purple colours (with white balls) for the Syndicate and is trained by the experienced and talented Michael Wigham based on Hamilton Road, Newmarket. At as large as 16 hands we are hopeful she can get her nose in front for us later in the year! If she possesses only a small amount of the ability of her sire, we look forward to some good racing. If she doesn’t, the company and syndicate will have some great days out with her!

Rarely does a horse emerge with a sire’s pedigree that combines so spectacularly with his racetrack record as does that of a Bertolini. A son of Danzig, the world’s leading sire of sires, Bertolini is also a three-quarter brother to another outstanding progenitor in Green Desert who in turn has proved himself a potent force in southern hemisphere pedigrees through the deeds of his sons Desert Sun and Volksraad.

A US$750,000 yearling, Bertolini began justifying his price tag from the time he stepped onto the track. After opening his two-year-old account with a second placing, Bertolini made into the winners’ list at his second start, taking out the Group Three July Stakes over the Newmarket 1200 metres. His juvenile year also earned him second placings in the G1 Middle Park Stakes (1200m) at Newmarket behind Lujain, and the G2 Prix Robert Papin (1100m) at Maisons-Lafitte.

Bertolini’s three year-old season began with a victory in the Listed Victor Chandler European Free Handicap (1400m) and concluded after four more placings at the highest level, including a second to Stravinsky in the G1 July Cup (1200m) at Newmarket. With a Timeform rating of 125, Bertolini was second highest ranking sprinter in Europe behind Stravinsky.

At four Bertolini took on the world. In the colours of the Godolphin stable he raced in Europe, Hong Kong and Dubai, his seasonal debut coming in the G3 Dubai Golden Shaheen (1200m) where he chased home the American dirt-track specialist Big Jag. Back in England, he claimed one of that country’s most competitive sprints, the G2 King’s Stand Stakes at Ascot’s Royal meeting.

Bertolini returned as a five-year-old for a brief campaign, the highlight of which was another placing in the G3 Golden Shaheen in Dubai, finally retiring mid-season after 23 starts. While his paternal pedigree boasts the names of some of the world’s finest stallions, Bertolini’s dam side is equally strong. His dam Aquilegia, by Alydar, won eight races including the G2 Belmont New York Handicap and the G3 Black Helen Handicap at Hieleah. Her first four foals were all winners.

Aquilegia is a sister to champion mare Althea and a half-sister to Vinery Stud’s Twining (Forty Niner) and Middlebrook Valley Lodge’s Press Card (Fappiano). Bertolini’s second dam, Courtly Dee (ex Tulle by Never Bend) won the title of American Broodmare of the Year in 1983, her 18 foals including three Group One winners, prominent among them Ali Oop (Al Hattab), Althea (Alydar) and Ketoh (Exclusive Native). Courtly Dee is also the dam of Green Desert’s mother, Foreign Courier (Sir Ivor).

Bertolini was a US$750,000 yearling with one of the best stallion pedigrees available who performed at Group One level for three consecutive seasons. He was a very fast and durable athlete, his pedigree is world class and was a fine looking animal. Further recommendation for Bertolini came at the opening day of the 2002 Keeneland September Yearling sales when leading trainer D Wayne Lukas paid US$2.4 million for his full brother. The purchase not only verified Bertolini’s outstanding credentials, it also allowed Danzig to upstage the perennial sales-topper Storm Cat.