Easy! Sea Cat wins the Listed Breeders Guineas going away at Fairview on Friday (Coastal Photos)
The genuine affordability and potential great value of this coming week’s March Yearling Sale was underlined again by the winner of the Listed Breeders Fillies Guineas at Fairview on Friday. Var’s daughter Sea Cat cost just R20 000 on the corresponding sale in 2012 and there is little doubt that she has a promising career ahead of her.
The exciting aspect of this week’s March Yearling Sale is the value for money possibilities and the very thought of a horse costing reasonable ‘ordinary man’s’ money and going on to win the Million Dollar Race, must be the ideal outcome for the hosting company.
The big owners are always buying the big money horses and winning the big races. Racing really needs more ordinary people.
Sea Cat hails from one of the Cape’s smaller family training operations and she has long been knocking on the door to gain some of that much sought after black type accreditation that will enhance her paddock value.
Robert Khathi rode the winner for Paul Reeves
She is also far from finished with her racing career though and trainer Paul Reeves would have enjoyed the break in Sea Cat’s frustrating run of near misses and what could have beens.
In fact Sea Cat has had a torrid run of bad luck in the deep end. Often running for little reward, eight of her thirteen starts have been at stakes level and that has not made things easy for her.
On Friday she looked well in on the weight terms and made short work of her rivals under a confident and well balanced ride by Robert Khathi.
Sitting just off the leaders early on, Sea Cat ran on strongly to win going away by three lengths in a time of 98 secs.
Mike Bass’ Shingwedzi ran on well for second, ahead of Titlee.
The second favourite She’s A Pippa obviously needed the run and ran a modest fourth.
The usually consistent local Winter Fantasy drifted from 9 to 2 to a call of 7 to 1 at the off and was a disappointment, finishing last in the field of ten.
Bred by Pat and Dave Schafer’s Collingwood Stud on the scenic Durbanville Wine Route, Sea Cat is by Var out of the USA bred Hansel mare, Hansea.
A winner in the USA, Hansea is the dam of winners in France, Italy and America.
Signed for at a bargain R20 000 by Paul Reeves Racing as Lot 19 on the 2012 CTS Book 2 Sale, Sea Cat has won 3 of her 13 starts with 3 places and R242 200 in stakes.
With the AHS restrictions in place, Sea Cat will be forced to stay in PE for the time being. That may not be such a bad thing and she could build her confidence and win more races on this showing.
