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Champion filly Princess Victoria has arrived in KwaZulu-Natal for the Champions Season where she will be out to defend her KZN Horse Of The Year title.
The Glen Kotzen-trained mare landed three weight for age fillies and mares features during last year’s Champions Season.
She secured her fourth career G1 win in the Garden Province Stakes over 1600m at Greyville, beating the high class Ebony Flyer, after her earlier Clairwood wins in the G3 Poinsettia Stakes over 1200m at Clairwood and the G2 Tibouchina Stakes.
She disappointed as favourite in the G1 SA Fillies Sprint over 1200m at Scottsville, but her high draw did her no favours.
Kotzen said the four-year-old Victory Moon filly was a bit behind in her preparation this season as the intention had been to send her overseas but those plans were shelved due to the export protocols currently remaining unchanged.
He said her main targets would once again be the SA Fillies Sprint on May 25, the Tibouchina on June 8 and the Garden Province on Vodacom Durban July day on July 6.
Nothing went right for Princess Victoria in the recent Cape Summer Season as she found no cover and over raced in both outings against males in a Pinnacle event and the G2 Green Point Stakes.
She was found to have mucous in the lungs after the latter event.
Kotzen, who has two powerful provincial yards in the Western Cape and KwaZulu Natal, has done a terrific job with Princess Victoria a she has won 9 of her 14 starts from 1000m to a mile. Her victories include four G1s, two G2s and a G3 event.
The pretender to Princess Victoria’s crown in the Kotzen yard is the three-year-old Jet Master filly Jet Aglow.
She is also at his Summerveld satellite yard and her main mission will be the G1 Woolavington 2000 on June 1 at Greyville.
Her first big race target will be the G2 KRA Fillies Guineas at Greyville on May 4.
Jet Aglow put up three excellent big race performances in the Cape Sizzling Summer Season, finishing third in the G1 Cape Fillies Guineas, second in the G1 Paddock Stakes over 1800m and fourth in the G1 Majorca Stakes over 1600m.
The Kotzen yard has also acquired the promising three-year-old Fort Wood filly Fortress Mine, who won a recent maiden in good style over 1600m at Scottsville.
Kotzen was not yet sure whether the one-eyed Political Playboy would make the journey to KZN.
This four-year-old Australian-bred gelding by Dehere bounced back to his best last week when winning a MR 92 Handicap over 1800m at Kenilworth.