Ridgemont’s red-hot five time Grade 1 winning sire Canford Cliffs enjoyed a prestige success North of the Limpopo on Saturday when his Daytona-bred son Action Zone stormed to victory under Mathew Thackeray to win the 65th renewal of the US$ 50 000 Gr1 Castle Tankard at Borrowdale Park.
Mathew Thackeray steers Action Zone to a career peak win as Jaeger Moon (Deryl Daniels) chases hard (Pic – Supplied)
Action Zone beat the former Gavin Smith-trained 2021 East Cape Derby winner Jaeger Moon (Deryl Daniels) by three quarters of a length in a time of 120,63 secs for the 2000m. The runner-up is a 7yo twelve-time winner.
A domestic Grade 1 in a part 2 racing country, the Tankard was first run over 1200m at Borrowdale Park on 18 April 1960 with the great SA-bred sprinter Riza winning the race from the highly-fancied My King, who had been imported to Zimbabwe in 1958. My King was a magnificent thoroughbred and won 18 races in all.
Purchased by Thomas Mason for R170 000 off the BSA August 2yo Sale, Action Zone is a ten-time winner from 1100m to 2000m and is raced by Craig Danckwerts, who, with his wife Roxy, breeds elephants at the Wild Is Life sanctuary at Dindingwe.
The winner is trained by Thomas Mason, who kept his 100% record from just two runners in the Tankard intact after he saddled True Beauty to win the big race in 2022.
Bred by the now closed Daytona Stud, the Action Zone is out of the Judpot mare, Private Dancer.
Mason, who was an assistant to Kirk Swanson for many years, and also an on-course presenter and commentator, went on his own in 2019.
“My timing wasn’t great as covid arrived. But anything after that start is good and we are doing well. Action Zone is a lovely horse and it’s amazing how versatile the progeny of Canford Cliffs have proven to be over the world. I stand to be corrected, but he may well be the only Canford Cliffs in this country,” concluded Mason.
Johannesburg-based commentator Nico Kritsiotis travelled up to call the race.
