Only a student of South African history would have picked up on the significance of the colours carried by Montefilia in Saturday’s Flight Stakes. Registered as pale blue and orange vertical halves, white sleeves and white cap, the colours represent the old flag of South Africa.
These colours were flown in South Africa from 1928 to 1994 when a man called Fred Brownell was commissioned to create a new flag in time for the first post apartheid election.
Montefilia is raced by Caroline Vincent, Kathlyn Docherty and Leanne Paligorov - three lucky ladies who are finding it hard to comprehend that they have a filly who’s just won a Group 1 event at only her sixth race start. Caroline’s partner Richard Kurland is South African born and was instrumental in securing the colours that glistened in the brilliant Randwick sunshine on Saturday.
Montefilia was all business as she nailed Hungry Heart right on the line to win the Flight Stakes - courtesy Bradley Photographers.
Trainer David Payne’s South African heritage prompted a phone call from Richard Kurland shortly before the 2019 Gold Coast yearling sale. “Richard knew I was a fellow South African and thought it appropriate that I should look for a suitable yearling for himself and partners,” said the trainer. “He stipulated that he would like a filly with an Oaks pedigree.”
David and Richard met at the sales complex and inspected the Kermadec filly together. “As a type she ticked every box,” said the astute horseman. “Well grown, very athletic with a lovely temperament and the most fluent walk. Eighteen months and six race starts later, I’ve got to say she’s a trainer’s dream. Uncomplicated and totally professional.”
Montefilia was a member of the first yearling crop by Kermadec who had been a consistent performer for the Waller stable. In a seventeen start career Kermadec posted four wins and seven placings for a round of drinks short of $3 million dollars. The son of Teofilo was dominant in his two Group 1 wins (Doncaster and George Main Stakes) and was placed in four other Gr 1’s including the George Ryder Stakes on two occasions.
The old firm is back in business! Another Gr 1 for David and Hugh Bowman - courtesy Bradley Photographers.
Montefilia has played an important role in getting Kermadec off the ground as a commercial sire. In winning at Newcastle in March she became the stallion’s very first winner, and at the same time his first two year old winner. Her BM 72 win at Rosehill in early August gave Kermadec his first three year old winner, while her Group 1 victory on Saturday propelled the stallion to another level.
Montefilia’s dam Bana Wu was bred in England and obviously had issues because she had only two race starts in her native country, posting a fourth and a third at stakes level in 2013. Montefilia is one of two winners produced by Banu Wu since the mare was imported to Australia by Tyreel Stud.
The Kermadec filly was knocked down to Payne Racing for $130,000 which is looking pretty modest alongside her current earnings of almost $426,000. It wasn’t long before the filly’s owners came up with a name which is a combination of several factors. The first three letters are from the name of her maternal grandsire Monsun. The next two letters “te” are part of the name of her paternal grandsire Teofilo, while the “filia” component is simply an old latin word for “daughter”. The result is a name befitting a Flight Stakes winner.
Montefilia was having only her fifth lifetime start, and her first in forty one days when she contested the Tea Rose Stakes on September 18th. Nash Rawiller had given her a quiet trial on August 31st and was expected to ride her in the Gr 2, but was required for the Godolphin filly Thermosphere.
With Hugh Bowman substituting, Montefilia was very good in finishing fourth only 2.3 lengths from Dame Giselle. “She was strong to the line but you could see the 1600m of the Flight Stakes was going to suit her better,” said David.
Come the Flight Stakes and yet another much hyped match race fizzled out. One of the predicted main players Dame Giselle raced too keenly for much of the trip, and was a spent force coming up the rise. The other high profile contestant Hungry Heart enjoyed a near perfect run throughout, although she was shunted four wide on the turn. She actually got away from Montefilia for a few strides, but the Kermadec filly started to warm to the task when Bowman got her to the extreme outside.
Just as Hungry Heart reached the lead, the giant striding Montefilia loomed large, absolutely relishing her first crack at a mile - and the Randwick mile at that. Right on the line the margin was a widening half neck, with Montefilia just getting interested.
For David Payne it was a massive dose of deja vu. Seventeen years earlier he’d stood in the same spot when Unearthly won the Flight Stakes to give the likeable South African his first Gr 1 success on Australian soil. He’d taken a massive gamble in relocating to Australia after a stellar career at home as a jockey and trainer.
When this one was taken David may well have been thinking about his previous Flight Stakes win with Unearthly soon after his arrival from South Africa in 2002 - courtesy Bradley Photographers.
He rode 400 winners before weight forced him out of the saddle at just 22 years of age. One of those winners was Chimboraa in the 1968 Gr 1 Durban July Hcp, the race that every South African owner, trainer and jockey wants to win more than any other. David completed a unique double four years later when he won the great race as a trainer with In Full Flight.
In three decades of training at home, David was twice leading South African trainer and twenty three times champion trainer in his home province of Natal or Kwazulu Natal as it’s now known. His impressive record was complimented by one hundred Group 1 wins.
When he arrived in the Harbour City in 2002, he had no horses, no potential owners and nowhere to accommodate a horse if one suddenly turned up. Although his impressive CV preceded him, David’s requests for stabling at Randwick were constantly denied.
“When I finally obtained twenty five boxes from the AJC, I had only one horse to put in the complex,” recalls David. “Nowadays of course you wouldn’t get twenty five boxes unless you could fill them immediately.”
New Zealand breeder Nelson Schick was the first to acknowledge the very obvious talents of the master South African horseman. He dispatched a filly called Sierra Dane to Payne’s Randwick stables for a short Sydney preparation. David painstakingly prepared her for a Randwick Maiden, knowing that a first up win would announce his presence in the Sydney training ranks.
“She was involved in a desperate finish going under by a nose to Fiammarosa with the third horse only a nose away,” recalled David. “Two runs later she won a 3YO Fillies race at Randwick by over four lengths and my Sydney career was under way.”
Soon after the trainer was recommended to owner breeder John Camilleri, nowadays best known as the breeder and seller of Winx. Unearthly was no Winx, but under the guidance of David Payne the daughter of Zabeel won four races for Camilleri including the 2003 Gr 1 Flight Stakes and the Gr 2 Chelmsford Stakes almost a year later.
Around the same time Payne got an unsound three year old to train by the name of Dante’s Paradiso. The gelding won four straight in a short time before being spelled, and next preparation was narrowly beaten in a Villiers before winning the listed Tatt’s Club Cup. “He had an enormous amount of ability and was a Gr 1 horse in the making had he remained sound. I was devastated,” said David. “James Bester tried him again a year later but he was never without problems.”
John Camilleri did David another great service by introducing him to his cousin John Cordina. The duo have enjoyed a great racing partnership highlighted by the deeds of the free wheeling Ace High. The son of High Chapparal had 28 starts for 5 wins and four placings for prize money of $2,269,325.
In the spring of 2017 the colt reeled off three stunning wins in the Gloaming Stakes, Spring Champion Stakes and Victoria Derby with Tye Angland doing the honours. The following Autumn he went within an eyelash of achieving the Derby double when beaten in an agonisingly close finish by Levendi at Randwick.
Ace High (Tye Angland) wins the 2017 Spring Champion Stakes from Tangled (Blake Shinn) - courtesy Bradley Photographers.
David and John Cordina also enjoyed success with the genuine Gallant Tess who was named after the owner’s late mother. The mare won 5 races and posted 11 placings for $800,000 and tried her heart out in every race. Gallant Tess was desperately unlucky in Eskimo Queen’s Coolmore Classic when she finished fourth only 1.5 lengths from the winner after covering a huge amount of extra ground.
Cordina and Payne enjoyed a great ride with the unsound Centennial Park who won 8 races with 12 placings for $1 million in prize money. “His troublesome joints required constant attention but he kept delivering,” said the trainer. “He could have raced on for a bit longer but he’d been so good to us we decided to retire him. I’d like a stable full of Centennial Parks.”
David had another triumph with an Australian Bloodstock horse called Master Of Design. Lee Freedman had the horse originally, but he was later sold to Perth where he had one start for one win before going on the market again - it was obvious nobody wanted him.
Australian Bloodstock’s Luke Murrell decided to take a punt with him, and selected David Payne to take on the challenge. In eight starts for the Payne stable, Master Of Design won three races including the Gr 2 Sebring Sprint and the Gr 1 T.J.Smith.
David got to train the talented Criterion for the first half of his career winning a Black Opal Stakes, Todman Stakes, Rosehill Guineas and an Australian Derby. How fitting it was that Hugh Bowman who rode Criterion in those two Gr 1 wins was able to renew his association with the stable on Saturday.
The trainer still rues the bad luck Criterion encountered in the Cox Plate won by Adelaide. “He was never out of trouble in the race and finished up in seventh place only a length from the winner,” said David. “James McDonald said he should have been right in the finish.”
When Randwick trainers were asked to vacate their premises to make way for the World Youth Day Papal Mass in 2008, David made a life changing decision. Most of the trainers spent their temporary exile at Warwick Farm, but the South African elected to make a permanent move to Rosehill. “I enjoy living at Mosman where we settled after moving to Australia,” he said. “The drive to Rosehill each day is manageable. Warwick Farm was out of the question. I’ve got no regrets.”
By keeping his team around the twenty mark nowadays, David is able to be completely hands on. “I’m a very lucky bloke as my eighteenth year in Australia comes to a close,” he said. “I’m living in a beautiful city, and still doing what I like best. There’s also a certain three year old filly in my life at the moment who’s making it very easy to get out of bed.”
David hasn’t taken his eyes off Montefilia since Saturday’s race. He’s watching the feed bin very closely and observing her general demeanour around the stable. If she’s bouncing around the place by acceptance time he’ll find it hard to resist the Spring Champion Stakes and its palatable 2000 metres.
Montefilia enjoyed the support of a vocal cheer squad at Randwick - courtesy Bradley Photographers.
There was great excitement in 1971 when the Australian Jockey Club announced the introduction of its new autumn three year old feature to be known as the Australasian Champion Stakes. The inaugural running brought together a star studded field with Gay Icarus accounting for Baguette and Gunsynd.
The AJC implemented a dramatic programming change when they decided to postpone the Derby of 1978 and move it to the autumn of 1979. At the same time, the then controlling body switched the Australasian Champion Stakes back to the former Derby time frame and renamed it the Spring Champion Stakes. Forty one years on there’s little doubt the AJC decision was a wise one.
Yankee Rose (2016) and Maid Of Heaven (2018) have proven the right kind of mature three year old filly can beat the males in the Spring Champion Stakes. There’s little doubt Montefilia is the right kind of filly and she’s certainly with the right kind of trainer.
(Banner image - A stunning thoroughbred type! Montefilia looked the part in the Darley dress rug after the Gr.1 Flight Stakes - courtesy Bradley Photographers)