In what was a storied Saturday at Hollywoodbets Scottsville, Andrew Fortune brought the curtain down on the 2025 Golden Horse Festival Of Speed feature programme with a typically polished ride on the Canford Cliffs gelding Tenango.
A winner of the Gr3 Champagne Stakes at his last start, Tenango’s official merit rating was increased from 104 to 118 for that effort, and now with 5 wins in his last 7 starts on the board, the 4yo gelding gave his Ridgemont-based sire Canford Cliffs another feature victory on a memorable afternoon.
Tenango (Andrew Fortune) wins the final feature on Golden Horse Sprint Raceday (Pic – Candiese Lenferna)
A first Golden Horse Sprint winner for trainer Candice Bass-Robinson, Tenango coasted along up the outside and let King Of The Gauls do the donkey work.
At the 250m marker, Fortune pressed the button and Tenango made light of his first sight of Hollywoodbets Scottsville to beat fellow Capetonian O’Tenikwa (5-1) by 1,20 lengths, with Fortune giving the connections the salute in the latter stages.
Tenango clocked 67,27 secs for the 1200m.
The Candyman can! Andrew Fortune with Deez Dayanand (Pic – Candiese Lenferna)
King Of The Gauls (20-1) stayed on remarkably well for third, a further 1,50 lengths back, with the grey Truth (25-2) capping the quartet.
The tote favourite Outlaw King (4-1) seemed to have his way blocked late, but when the gaps opened he produced no real fire. He is better than this.
Bred and raced in partnership with new entry Mark Bass by stalwart Ian Longmore, Tenango is a son of high-riding Ridgemont sire Canford Cliffs (Tagula) out of the one-time winning Trippi mare, Tripadvisor.
After celebrating a maiden Gr1 success just a few hours earlier at the same venue, Canford Cliffs has had a sensational season all round.
Now a winner of 6 races with 4 places from 14 starts, Tenango took his stakes earnings to R1 524 802.
