Cape champion Katak (Pic – Chase Liebenberg)
The dismal stakes situation in South Africa was one of the motivations for sending him overseas.
And then our export protocols put the next knife in. The top horse effectively lost his entire 4yo season on the road.
After a crazy incredibly expensive journey, Cape Winter Series star Katak is nearing the end of his first week with Ricardo Le Grange at Kranji in Singapore and is ‘settling in nicely’, according to his trainer.
Handsome Katak in his new box
“Katak is in the stable. He arrived in Singapore on 20 July . He did a two week stint in quarantine. He has been with me from 4 August. He is a magnificent animal and is settling in nicely,” Le Grange told the Sporting Post.
A South African, Le Grange trains a variety of horses for SA Owners, including Fred Crabbia, and in the case of Katak, Marsh and Guy Shirtliff, as well as Bryn Ressell.
The latter are involved with the now 5yo entire, Katak.
Watch Katak in work this week:
The Ridgemont Highlands-bred son of Potala Palace was unbeaten in his only five starts in the care of Milnerton trainer Piet Steyn.
He won from 1200m to 2400m during the 2019/20 season.
He joined SA champion Pocket Power and African Night Sky as the only winners of the testing Cape Winter Series Triple Crown.
The Winter Derby victory was his final start on African soil.
Katak in his new home
At the time of the decision for Katak to emigrate, owner Marsh Shirtliff said that the scope for earnings in Singapore put even a prestigious race like the Met into perspective.
Katak, a second crop son of Ridgemont-Highlands Singspiel Gr1 winner Potala Palace, is out of the Windrush three time winner, Sapphire Silk.
We will be monitoring his progress in his new home.
