Trainer Dean Kannemeyer celebrated his maiden Gr1 Golden Horse Sprint victory and his second elite level success of the season when the Khaya Stables bred and raced Gimme A Prince put his hand up for Equus Champion Sprinter honours with a courageous win under topweight at Hollywoodbets Scottsville on Saturday.
On a day that was kind to the majority of punters, the Gr1 jackpot carryover pool reached close on R4,3 million and the dividend a modest R73,90 – an indication of the fact that the popular picks arrived. And Gimme A Prince, only beaten by a wide gate in the IOS Gr2 Drill Hall Stakes when needing the run at his opening run of the 2023 Champions Season, was one of them.
Gimme A Prince and Keagan de Melo are easy winners of the Gr1 Golden Horse Sprint (Pic – Chase Liebenberg)
Allowed to relax from his wide gate early on, the son of Gimmethegreenlight showed his class when he cut through his field late to win going away in the fastest time of the 1200m Gr1 quartet on the day.
Clocking 68,09 secs, Gimme A Prince (18-10) charged clear to beat the well-backed Thunderstruck (17-2) by 0,90 lengths, with Surjay (25-2) a head back in third. The latter two got tight late and there was a race review.
Winning Form-sponsored jockey Keagan de Melo said afterwards that he still had goosebumps.
“What a phenomenal and special horse to me. And a great team effort. I played my cards as they were dealt with the wide draw. Mr Kannemeyer has always felt he is better from off them. When he settled I knew he had the turn of foot to run them down. Carrying the 60kgs was a true testament to his courage,” added the national log-leader.
A delighted trainer Dean Kannemeyer said it was a super win and Gimme A Prince had earned his stripes.
“I’m so pleased for Lady Christine Laidlaw and for Varsfontein who raised this magnificent horse. It’s a team effort and I should mention Jehan Malherbe and all my team at Summerveld and Milnerton. It’s been a great day of racing and we saw some cracking performances today,” added Kannemeyer.
The Khaya Stables bred winner is a 4yo gelded son of champion sire Gimmethegreenlight (More Than Ready) out of the Gr1 SA Fillies Sprint winner Real Princess. Like Gimme A Prince, the Klawervlei daughter of Trippi was raced by Khaya Stables for Dean Kannemeyer, who also mentioned her in his post-race interview,
Real Princess was the most expensive filly sold at the 2013 Cape Premier Yearling Sale (Book 1) when knocked down to Form Bloodstock for R2,7 million. Gimme A Prince is her first foal, with the unraced The Real Prince currently in training with the powerful yard.
This was Gimme A Prince’s second Gr1 success and took his tally to 6 wins and 3 places from 10 starts for stakes of R1 963 188.
Watch the replay here:
