Richard Fourie and Justin Snaith made it a double in Saturday’s R150 000 Listed Settlers Trophy at Durbanville when the lightly exposed 4yo Belgarion finished with a flourish to follow up on stablemate Magnificent Seven’s classy victory in 2018.
With the distance of the race reduced to 2000m, the powerful Snaith team brought a trio of runners to the party and jockey choice and stable confidence had suggested early on that Belgarion was the right one.
Chase Liebenberg captured the start – Belgarion is nearest camera
And the good son of Dynasty – now a winner from 1200m to 2000m – signalled his Cape Summer Season prospects to give Justin his third win in five runnings, and his sixth overall, in the early season feature.
The pace was muddling early on, with Belgarion staying within three lengths of the leader as the brimful of confidence Morne Winnaar eventually taking the grey Herodotus out to step up the pace ahead of American Landing and Crome Yellow.
Winnaar and Woodhill Racing kingpin Glen Kotzen can do little wrong at the moment and at the 250m an upset looked on the cards as Belgarion took his time to find his stride down the inside as Herodotus galloped fresh off his rest out front.
But Fourie had again timed it perfectly and Belgarion (9-10) went past the leader with authority to post a half length victory in a time of 121,91 secs, with Herodotus (18-1) staying on for second.
Richard Fourie drives Belgarion out as Morne Winnaar and the grey Herodotus come under pressure (Pic – Chase Liebenberg)
Crome Yellow (6-1) finished with a rattle to run third, ahead of the not-quite-there-yet American Landing in fourth.
The winner is owned by staunch Cape racing supporters, Alec and the Honourable Gillian Foster and bred by Alec Foster. He is a son of the now deceased perennial class producer Dynasty (Fort Wood) out of the lightly raced German two-time winner Riva (Acatenango) – a half sister to French Gr3 winner Oxava.
A winner of 4 of his 6 starts with 1 place, Belgarion has banked R193 750.
He was placed in the Politician Stakes behind the smashing Twist Of Fate earlier this year and looks a horse worth following and remains undefeated as a 4yo.
Summer step two accomplished for Belgarion – the presentation (Pic – Chase Liebenberg)
His target is the Gr2 Peninsula Handicap to be run at Kenilworth on 11 January. That means the real Belgarion fireworks could reach fruition in the 2020 SA Champions Season.
The Snaith-Fourie combination won three races on the day.
