Rainbow Bridge’s stirring repeat victory in the Gr1 Cape Town Met made him only the third horse in racing history to win the Western Cape’s premier race more than once.
Rainbow Bridge wins the Gr1 Cape Town Met 2021. (Pic- Chase Liebenberg)
He finds himself in the very best of company considering he joined legends of the turf Politician and Pocket Power, the latter completing a record hat-trick in 2009.
Lest we forget, Rainbow Bridge had given notice of his considerable talent as a three-year-old when he ripped through his first five starts, winning both the Gr3 Winter Guineas and Gr3 Winter Classic, while shaving almost a second off the 1450m Durbanville track record in the Gr3 Matchem Stakes.
He tasted defeat for the first time when beaten three shortheads in that remarkable Gr2 Green Point Stakes won by Legal Eagle, finished third in the Gr1 L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate and capped his summer campaign with a splendid first Met win in 2019.
He has since established himself amongst the country’s elite runners with additional Gr1 wins in the Champions Cup and last season’s Gold Challenge, while reaching the frame in top level races such as the Vodacom Durban July (second) and L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate (second and third twice).
So much has been written about Rainbow Bridge’s remarkable dam Halfway To Heaven, whose first three foals are all Gr1 winners, yet it must be remembered that , like his sire Ideal World, she contributed just half of her son’s genes.
Based at Mauritzfontein, this son of world-leading sire Kingmambo out of Dansili’s champion own sister Banks Hill is fast stamping his authority on the Met. Rainbow Bridge’s first win came exactly three years after first-crop daughter Smart Call claimed the scalp of subsequent Horse of the Year Legal Eagle in the 2000m race. A multiple champion and triple Gr1 winner in her birth country, she subsequently departed for Britain and under the tutelage of Sir Michael Stoute, went on to cap an English campaign with victory in the Gr3 Hopping Stakes.
Ideal World, who entered stud in 2010 as a Gr2-placed, dual French stakes winner, has to date sired 26 stakes winners and in true Mauritzfontein tradition, the blue-blooded stallion has made his mark as a classic stallion.
His third Gr1 winner is SA Derby hero Samurai Warrior, while Cape Speed won the Gr3 Track and Ball Derby and daughter Zante the Gr3 Track and Ball Oaks.
Met stallion: Ideal World (Kingmambo – Banks Hill). (Pic- Mauritzfontein)
She was nosed out by paternal half-brother Hermoso Mundo in a pulsating finish to the 2017 Gold Cup, the pair finishing well clear of their rivals. With the Gold Bowl and Gold Vase in the bag, Hermoso Mundo made it a clean sweep of staying events, a feat which earned him the Equus Stayer Award. Adding to that memorable occasion, Ideal World’s son Shady World had won the 3600m Port Elizabeth Gold Cup 48 hours earlier!
Daughter Onesie likewise captured the country’s longest staying event and is still earning her keep at age seven, a marvellous example of toughness and endurance!
While Ideal World’s progeny tend to come into their own with maturity and many excel over ground, he is quite capable of siring stakes class juveniles, his daughter Inverroche being a fine example. A winner on debut, she next captured the Gr3 Strelitzia Stakes before picking up Gr1 black type when third in the Allan Robertson Championship.
Coral Bay was imbued with precocity, winning both the Kenilworth Fillies Nursery and Irridescence Stakes, son Kimberley Star captured the Champion Juvenile Cup, while Syringa Stakes winner Persian Rug had given notice of her talent early on when third in the Gr1 Thekwini Stakes.
Milers also feature prominently amongst Ideal’s World’s tally of stakes winners. Those that come to mind include Vistula (Gr2 Joburg Fillies & Mares Challenge), Zen Arcade (Gr3 Graham Beck Stakes), Mount Laurel (Gr3 Three Troikas Stakes), Helen’s Ideal (Stormsvlei Mile) and Luna Child (Breeders Guineas).
And while Rainbow Bridge is not a miler per se, he captured the mile Gr1 Gold Challenge with a bold display of front-running elan!
Click on the image below for more news
