It was another super Saturday for Ridgemont’s boom sire Rafeef with an impressive 2yo debut winner at Turffontein and two award winning progeny at the Highveld Feature Season Awards later the same day.
Take No Prisoners (Callan Murray) wins a cracker on debut last Saturday (Pic – JC Photos)
Formerly sponsored by Ridgemont, the talented Callan Murray was enjoying his first race day back on African soil in over four years after a stint in Australia, and was full of praise for the Ridgemont bred Take No Prisoners who lived up to his name when making a professional winning debut over 1400m for Ridgemont (nominee: Craig Kieswetter) and Devin Heffer.
A son of SA Champion sire elect Vercingetorix, the handsome Take No Prisoners is the second winner produced by the outstanding racemare Takingthepeace. A daughter of Visionaire, Takingthepeace won six times, peaking with massive efforts in the Gr1 Wilgerbosdrift SA Fillies Classic and Gr1 Wilgerbosdrift Gauteng Fillies Guineas.
The Gr1 Computaform Sprint winning sire has a very promising crop of two-year-olds this season, and Take No Prisoners was his thirteenth juvenile winner. Rafeef is currently in the second slot in the 2yo Champion Sire log.
Rafeef juvenile representatives include Listed Wilgerbosdrift Ruffian Stakes winner Glastonbury, the promising All The Rage, and Gr2 TAB SA Nursery runner-up Esteemed, who was one of a duo of Highveld Feature Season Award winners for their sire.
The Mike and Mat de Kock-trained Esteemed, who races for the same partnership as Take No Prisoners, is a 2yo son of Rafeef out of the Australian-bred High Chaparral mare Honour Roll.
A runaway debut winner, he received accolades from Canada-based jockey, Ryan Munger: “This is what good horses do! He’s a classy individual!” enthused Munger. “It was like he’s done it a million times. He has everything about him, all the attributes to be a top horse. He did everything right. I shook his reins at the 300m mark, gave him one smack and it was race over. He cruised in!”
A son of Aussie champion Redoute’s Choice, Rafeef, himself a Highveld Feature Season Horse Of The Season in 2017, was amongst the winners again when his 6yo Gr1 Computaform Sprint winner William Robertson – the third son of his super sire to win the big Highveld sprint – received the accolades in both the Champion Older Horse and Champion Sprinter categories.
Raced in a partnership by Rob Macnab, Keegan Govender, Xander Spies, Corne Spies Racing (Pty) Ltd & Jannie de Lange’s Waste Glass Recovery (Pty) Ltd, the Ridgemont- bred star is out of the thrice winning Trippi mare, Massachusetts.
The 6yo gelding has won 15 of his 42 starts with 16 places and has earned over R3 million.
A lionheart, William Robertson will next be seen in action in the Hollywoodbets Gr1 Gold Challenge on 7 June.
