Ridgemont-sponsored Richard Fourie and trainer Alan Greeff landed a genuine hat-trick at Fairview on Friday, crowned by a facile victory for the former Highveld-based Mercantour in the non black-type R175 000 Fairview 1400.
Mercantour (Richard Fourie) wins the Fairview 1400 (Pic – Pauline Herman)
After breaking his existing season high mark of 119 winners with Smashing in the fourth race, Fourie followed up with another Ridgemont-bred strike for Hollywood Racing, as Canford Cliffs’ speedy son Cliff Top got back to winning ways in the fifth.
On the only race on the programme not impacted by the surface change withdrawals, Fourie made short work of his eight rivals when the 8-10 Mercantour, another winner for high-riding owner Peter Moor, took the 1400m in his stride to beat Bush Tracker (7-1) by 1,25 lengths in a time of 80,89 secs.
“Life after racing is going to be so much fun for this horse. He hasn’t got a bad bone in his body,” added Fourie.
Trainer Alan Greeff appeared happy about the move to the poly as it clearly enhanced the confidence about Mercantour’s prospects.
Formerly based with Stuart Pettigrew, the winner is a son of the deceased speed champion VAR (Forest Wildcat). Bred by Varsfontein-bred, Mercantour is out of the Western Winter mare, Winter Wood.
A R200 000 National Yearling Sale graduate, Mercantour is a winner of 8 races with 14 places from 35 starts, and has earned R933 875.
He looks set to continue to earn in the Eastern Cape and can be followed.
Ed – for interest sake, the winner appears to have been named after the Mercantour National Park, located in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence and Alpes-Maritimes provinces.
