Less than a month after purchasing a Ridgemont Highlands-bred Canford Cliffs filly at the 2022 Cape Racing Ready To Run & 2yo Unbroken Sale, owner Dylan Chinsammy banked the winner’s cheque in the opening juvenile event of the Cape season at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth on Sunday.
The Cape Racing juvenile season has undergone a revamp of some proportions, and the first two baby races down South boasted fifteen 2yo’s in each of the girls’ and boys’ 900m dashes.
Miss Hannigan (Keagan de Melo) storms home ahead of De Janeiro (Louis Mxothwa) in the juvenile season opener in the Cape (Pic – Chase Liebenberg)
And the smart-looking Miss Hannigan will go down as the icebreaker as she stormed home at 4-1 under Betway Summer Cup winning rider Keagan de Melo to register a smart first win.
A daughter of the top Robertson nursery’s multiple international Gr1 winning sire Canford Cliffs, Miss Hannigan produced one of the gallops of the sale held at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth on 29 October, and looks the veritable good buy at just R110 000 as she cruised home on debut.
She is out of the eight time winning multiple stakes performed Brave Tin Soldier mare Easy Street. Sunday’s winner’s full brother Ridgerunner also won as a 2yo last term.
An elated Gareth van Zyl stable assistant Spencer Cooke heaped the praise on the Ridgemont Highlands team for their grounding efforts in advance of the sale.
“She came to the sale as a genuine ready to run prospect. They did the prep and all the hard work so I am not taking any of the credit. She’s a lovely sort with a beautiful temperament,” added the seasoned horseman.
A five-time Gr1 winner, Canford Cliffs has produced stakes winners across the globe, and just a week ago was in the Australian racing news as a broodmare sire when his own daughter Bumbasina celebrated her star Gr2-winning offspring Amelia’s Jewel (Siyouni) running out an impressive winner of the Gr2 Sky Racing WA Guineas at Ascot in Australia. The winner is highly regarded and is a winner of 5 of her 6 starts. She is being aimed at the Gr1 Northerly Stakes over 1800m at Ascot on December 3.
Canford Cliffs has set the turf alight in a bright start to his stud career here, where his first locally bred and born two-year-olds included dual stakes winner Cliff Top and Gr1 Thekwini Stakes runner -up Rock The Fox, ranked a SA Triple Tiara prospect by top conditioner Sean Tarry.
The magnificent Canford Cliffs
Sunday’s opening 2yo races will lead up to two newly created juvenile events on Hollywoodbets Guineas Day on 17 December.
The Commonwealth Cup will be run at juvenile plate conditions for colts and geldings while the Summer Coronation will be run for the fillies. These two races will carry a prize of R200 000 each.
The most exciting news is the formation of a 3 leg Summer Juvenile Series.
In total, the Summer Juvenile Series has R1 600 000 on offer, a vast increase from the R525 000 for the three races last season!
