Spot On! Alan Greeff trained the winner.
Alan Greeff trained Sail From Seattle’s first stakes winner when Seattle Storm won the R130 000 Listed East Cape Nursery run over 1200m at Fairview on Friday.
The exciting stallion sired three of the first four home, but punters were caught unawares as the betting indicated that the winner’s stablemate by the same sire was the right one.
Rose and Ashley Parker must have been popping the champagne at the beautiful Ascot Stud as their handsome Gone West stallion Sail From Seattle has struck early and hard! But there was plenty of irony in the impressive win as punters were reminded that beyond breeding winners, backing winners takes the cake as the toughest pursuit on earth.
Sail From Seattle had three runners in the race. Navistar (8 to 10) and Seattle Storm (16 to 1) are trained by Alan Greeff, while the maiden Sahvara (35 to 1) hails from the Corne Spies satellite yard.
The favourite Navistar had shown himself to be just about the top 2yo in the province after winning 2 of his first 3 starts, and also running a cracking third on Met Day at Kenilworth in the Listed Summer Juvenile Stakes.
He stood out in this event, and was supported accordingly in the betting. But after showing pace, he tired late to run a not entirely disgraced 3 length fourth.
The heat was on from the jump with New Spring leading Verlaine and Seattle Storm, with Navistar two lengths adrift but moving into contention at the halfway marker.
Piere Strydom also loomed up dangerously on the Cape visitor Another Idea as the four raced abreast.
In a tight and exciting finish, Seattle Storm drew off under Karis Teetan inside the final 200m to beat Another Idea by 0,25 lengths in a time of 71,23 secs. The maiden Sahvara ran a cracker in third, with Navistar beaten out of the Place Accumulator.
The winner is owned by the Scribante family and was bred by Ascot Stud out of the eight time winning Elliodor mare Sherry Elizabeth.
He cost R280 000 at the National Yearling Sale and has now won 2 of 3 starts (he ran third on debut) for gross stake earnings of R119 675.
There are 17 Sail From Seattle yearlings offered on the National Yearling Sale to be held on 26 and 28 April. Ten colts and seven fillies make up the batch, and Ascot Stud are offering eight of them.
There should be plenty of interest and exciting days lie ahead.
