Australian bred Igugu added another Group 1 victory to her long list of wins when she took out the J&B Met (2000m) at Kenilworth in South Africa last Saturday.

Igugu who is South Africa’s 2011 horse of the year, hadn’t raced for seven weeks and had to overcome a respiratory infection before beating Bravura by half a length in the Group 1.

“She travelled well, obviously she has a respiratory infection about three or four weeks ago, so it has not been plan sailing, but clinically she is perfect,” trainer Mike de Kock said before the mare’s convincing win.

As well as missing a week’s work, Igugu had to make the trip from Cape Town to Johannesburg and de Kock was happy with the way the mare travelled.

“The trip has been good. They spent about 18 hours on the float down, but it is something she has done before,” he said.

Last Saturday’s win took Igugu’s wins to ten from twelve for the South African trainer and that was only her second run back from a long break.

Igugu was bred at NSW’s Kia Ora Stud and is by Champion European sire Galileo out of the Aga Khan bred mare Zarina and went through  the 2009 Inglis Premier Yearling Sale in Melbourne for $65,000.