Solar Star has Dynamic well beaten to win The Sledgehammer
The scintillating form shown by Dean Kannemeyer’s string since moving into Summerveld for their maiden Champions Season onslaught continued at Scottsville on Sunday when the Kahal gelding Solar Star scored his first feature victory when beating some decent sorts in the R135 000 Listed The Sledgehammer.
The cliches of ‘turning the corner’ and ‘purple patch’ are well beaten and worn in an industry where smoke blowing runs second only to breathing.
But in Kannemeyer’s case, the genuine winning streak is shown in his statistics of 12 winners in the space of a month, with the big guns yet to be drawn!
Solar Star had won his opening KZN run on the polytrack three weeks earlier and he adapted smartly to the right-handed Scottsville turf track,
Stuart Randolph, who has shared some of the Kannemeyer riding commitments with Anthony Delpech, had Solar Star in midfield as Bold Inspiration and Dynamic set the fractions.
Into the home run the field fanned out as Bold Inspiration faded with Sean Cormack bring Dynamic into line and looking dangerous.
At the 300m Dynamic looked the likely winner but Solar Star was making good ground and he proved the stronger as he powered home to win by a half length in a time of 106,57 secs.
Both of the top two are Vodacom Durban July entries.
Winning trainer Dean Kannemeyer said afterwards that he was hoping for a better pace, as he felt his charge would be most effective running at them off a good gallop.
Solar Star races in a partnership of Vanessa Harrison, Greg Bortz and Bryn Ressell and was bred by Summerhill Stud. He is by Kahal out of the USA winning Carson City mare, Nevada Sunrise.
This was his fifth win with seven places from fifteen career starts, and he took his earnings to R346 750.
He was bought for R300 000 on the Summerhill Ready To Run Sale.
“He was a leggy November foal, but he had a presence, a lovely head and a bold eye. I bought him at the Summerhill Ready To Run and what a source of top horses Mickey Goss’ stud has proven to be over the years,” he said.
Kannemeyer continued as he outlined the value of the Ready To Run sale :
“The added value of the ready to run concept is in the gallops and once I saw his action I then decided that I had to have him. I spoke to Greg and Vanessa, and Bryn was keen so we decided to put up our hands,” he said.
