Ridgemont’s international stakes producing stallion Canford Cliffs has enjoyed a purple patch with his speedy 2yo’s, and displayed his enormous versatility at Fairview on Friday when his son Bournemouth made it back-to-back victories in the R175 000 Lakeside Handicap.
The non black-type feature was a walk in the proverbial park for the Alan Greeff-trained 5yo gelding, who strangely has been winless in the year since he won the same feature, also under the now Ridgemont-sponsored Richard Fourie.
Richard Fourie has Bournemouth in command (Pic – Pauline Herman)
But running fresh after a 14 week break, Bournemouth (5-2) cruised up from back of midfield and reeled in the leader Zatara Magic (7-2) to win going away by 2,25 lengths in a time of 151,93 secs for the 2400m.
An early leader, topweight Firealley (13-2) ran a typically gutsy race to stay on for third a further quarter length back, with Harold The Duke (7-1) completing the quartet.
Raced by Messrs D Cicognini, L Grammer, John Lamb, and Mr & Mrs A C Greeff, who lease him from Ridgemont, the Drakenstein Stud bred gelding is a son of Canford Cliffs (Tagula) out of the thrice winning British-bred Galileo mare Serruria
A R160 000 National Yearling Sale purchase, Bournemouth has now won 7 races with 7 places from his 23 starts for stakes of R534 426.
Alan Greeff and Richard Fourie shared the honours on the afternoon with Gavin Smith and Craig Zackey, who also enjoyed a double.
Given Canford Cliffs feature success, it was another good afternoon at the races for the Ridgemont stallions, with two Rafeef progeny in Mayor Of Merrivale and Smashing – both bred by Ridgemont – winning earlier on in the day.
- The next Fairview racemeeting is on Tuesday 4 February – first is off at 12h25.
