On the strength of her win in the Gr3 Helios Fillies Stakes, Millard's Cape Fillies Guineas winner Bimbina was sent off favourite for the Gr1 Lancome Handicap at odds of 11-10. She would have been shorter had stablemate Up The Creek, who has yet to find her form in the Transvaal, not drawn good support, to start at 28-10.
French-bred filly Confettine dictated the gallop through the turn, followed by Up The Creek, with Bimbina poised to strike in third along the running rail. Bimbina did just that as first Up The Creek and then Confettine tired, bursting ahead in the last 200m, to hold Eileen Alanna by three parts of a length.
The win improved Bimbina's already impressive record to six wins from 10 starts. She heads off to Natal for the winter season with earnings of R364 928.
EILEEN ALANNA (1982 f, Boot Camp - Alanya by Meadowville). Eileen Alanna was bred by Dudley Austen in the E-Cape. Her dam Alanya had been unimpressive filly on the track, failing to win. She produced 14 foals of which Eileen Alanna was the best. Trained by Ricky Howard-Ginsberg, she raced in the interests of Mr P Muller. In three seasons and 20 starts, she scored 6 wins, of which the highlight was the SA Fillies Guineas. She was four times Gr1 placed. Her subsequent stud career was a relative disappointment, with five winners from ten foals. Her 4-time winning daughter Bold Eileen is grandam of Garden Province Stakes winner Bold Ellinore, voted Champion Middle Distance Female in 2007.
Legacy: Gr1 SA Fillies Guineas
Up The Creek
UP THE CREEK (1980 f, Royal Prerogative – Mountain Drive by Buckpasser). Bred at Godfrey Gird\'s Maine Chance Farms, Up The Creek is by Champion Sire Royal Prerogative out of Mountain Drive, an unraced half-sister to stallion Ribofilio. She raced in the colours of Graham Beck and his wife Rhona, trained by Terrance Millard. Up The Creek started her career as a 3yo with a debut-win and two second places, after which came five consecutive wins including the SA Fillies Guineas and Garden Province Stakes. She was voted Champion 3yo Filly. At 4 Up The Creek won the Garden Province Stakes for a second time, and was twice Gr1-placed. She didn’t lose her appetite for racing at five the next season, beating stable companion Bimbina in the Paddock Stakes, and was the first female home in the Queen’s Plate, when third to Yamani and Mauritzfontein. She retired with 8 wins for career earnings of R260.000, to be covered by Home Guard. The result of that union was Downriver, who finished second to Star Effort in the Gr1 Cape Fillies Guineas, then died later that season. Up The Creek bred 10 winners from 13 foals, but only one stakes winner, the colt Hard Test (Gr3 Clairwood Nursery; by Shoe Danzig). Her first three foals were bred by Oaklands, which staged a dispersal sale in 1991 where Up The Creek was knocked down at a sale-topping R600k, in foal to Northern Guest. Buyer was Norman Tilley’s National Turf Investments (NTI), breeder of her next five foals. She changed hands again, age 15, at the 1996 Natal Mare sale for R85k (where NTI also sold champion mares Tecla Bluff and Devon Air). Her last five foals were conceived at Summerhill Stud.
Legacy: Gr1 SA Fillies Guineas, Gr1 Garden Province S. (twice), Gr1 Paddock S.; Champion 3yo Filly
Bimbina
BIMBINA (ARG) (1982f - Francis U x Billie Dove by Victory Roll). Bred in Argentina at Haras America, Bimbina raced in the colours of Graham Beck and his wife Rhona, trained by Terence Millard. She won her maiden as a 3yo in October 1985, followed by 3 plate-race wins in quick succession. Regarded as her stable’s second string for the Gr1 Cape Fillies Guineas (contested as the Highlands Stud Classic) in January 1986, Bimbina upset her heavily fancied stable companion Ecurie (who started odds-on at 1/3), winning by half a length. As a member of her trainer’s raiding party taken to the Highveld for the autumn feature season, Bimbina was successful in the Gr2 Lancome Fillies handicap and Gr3 Helios Fillies Stakes in March and April. During the following Natal feature season she ran a short head second to Eileen Alanna in the Gr1 SA Fillies Guineas (with odds-on Ecurie unplaced). After that her form tapered off somewhat, perhaps not surprisingly after such an intense campaign. She was retired to her owner’s Highlands Stud following her 3yo season. Bimbina’s second career was a disappointment. She had a dozen foals, of which six won, none of them stakes performers. She was sold, carrying a West Man colt, for R30k at the Cape Mare Sale in 2000, and re-sold 2 years later at a mixed sale for just R12k, barren. The non-winning West Man colt of 2000 had been her final foal.
Legacy: Gr1 Cape Fillies Guineas
