Racing · Grade 1 classic
The SA Fillies Classic.
The Tiara's middle leg — 1800m at Turffontein in March. The race that has made champions of Igugu, Cherry On The Top, Summer Pudding, War Of Athena and Rain In Holland.
The race.
The second leg of the Tiara.
The Wilgerbosdrift SA Fillies Classic is the Grade 1 middle jewel of the Wilgerbosdrift SA Triple Tiara — a 1800m test at Turffontein’s Standside track, run in early March for three-year-old fillies. It is the direct equivalent of the colts’ Grade 1 SA Classic, staged on the same Classic Day card, and the fulcrum between the Gauteng Fillies Guineas and the SA Oaks. Win this one off a Guineas victory and the Oaks beckons. Win all three and you join a list of five.
Heritage
From Oaks Trial to Grade 1 classic.
When the Triple Tiara was inaugurated in 1999 — the first leg won by Sean Tarry's Golden Apple (Northern Guest) in the renamed Gauteng Fillies Guineas — the fillies' series needed a parallel to the colts' Grade 1 SA Classic. The answer was to re-imagine the old 2000m SA Oaks Trial as the Tiara's middle leg: trimmed to 1800m, elevated to Grade 1, run alongside the boys on Classic Day. Wilgerbosdrift — the Mary Slack-led stud whose own Cherry On The Top won the Tiara in 2013 — took over title sponsorship of the series in 2015, and the race has carried the Wilgerbosdrift name since. The black-type Ormond Ferraris Oaks Trial still holds the middle-distance prep slot the original trial once occupied.
Turffontein racecourseThe race at a glance.
Grade 1 · 1800m · Turffontein · early March.
Grade and distance
The Tiara's only Grade 1 leg at 1800m. Three-year-old fillies on the Turffontein Standside, set weights.
Classic Day
Staged on the same card as the colts' Grade 1 SA Classic — Classic Day, early March, with the two Classics back-to-back on the programme.
Wilgerbosdrift
Wilgerbosdrift Stud Farm — always a champion of the fairer sex — has headline-sponsored the Tiara since 2015.
Champion-maker
Winners have gone on to Champion 3YO Filly, Equus Horse Of The Year, and in Igugu's case the Durban July. Five of them have completed the Triple Tiara.
Notable SA Fillies Classic winners.
Five Tiara heroines, and counting.
Igugu
By Galileo, trained by Mike de Kock, ridden by Anthony Delpech. Won the Classic by 10½ lengths from Las Ramblas — the first filly to complete the Triple Tiara, then took the Woolavington and the Durban July. Equus Horse Of The Year.
Cherry On The Top
By Tiger Ridge, trained by Ormond Ferraris for Bridget Oppenheimer's Wilgerbosdrift. Won the Classic by 5¼ lengths and swept the Tiara — Equus Champion 3YO Filly of 2013.
Summer Pudding
By Silvano, trained by Paul Peter, ridden by Gavin Lerena. Took the Classic, then the Oaks to become the third Triple Tiara winner — and the Woolavington 2000 after that.
Rain In Holland
By Duke Of Marmalade, trained by Sean Tarry, ridden by Richard Fourie. The fifth — and most recent — Triple Tiara heroine, for Drakenstein Stud.
The test
What 1800m at Turffontein asks.
Turffontein's Standside is the proper middle-distance dial on the Highveld — a left-handed 1800m that rewards a filly with cruising speed off a Guineas campaign but stretches her toward Oaks country without quite getting there. The Fillies Classic sits on Classic Day beside the boys' SA Classic, and the field is almost always the Guineas form-line plus a late-developing stayer or two moving up off a trial. It is not a gimmick race. Five of the Tiara heroines since 2011 have come through this race as the middle leg; others have carried the form into Oaks Day and beyond. Win this, and the 2450m on Oaks Day is the only thing between you and the list.
The Triple TiaraBe there
The SA Fillies Classic at Turffontein.
Classic Day at Turffontein is the first Saturday in March, and the fillies share top billing with the colts. Parade ring hospitality and grandstand tables book up fast — reserve early and see the Tiara take shape.
Hospitality enquiries