Lars Kelp
Norwegian owner and Bloodstock Consultant Lars Kelp enjoyed an early highlight in his fledgeling association with South African horseracing when he led in his up-and-coming Greys Inn filly Peach Delight for trainer Dean Kannemeyer on L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate Day.
A delighted Kelp, who has racing interests all over the globe, told the capacity crowd that it was an honour to have a winner on a prestigious raceday – and he certainly has every reason to be relishing his first taste of horseracing in Africa.
His Var colt Varlo had beaten a good field of sprinters when winning the R150 000 Need For Speed Sprint just a fortnight earlier.
And this evening Kelp is looking forward to two runners in Dubai, in which he has an interest.
The two run in the fourth race, the USD 75 000 UAE 2000 Guineas Trial, which is run over 1400m on the sand at 18h30.
Volatile, is the only Swedish-bred horse on the seven–race programme, and will have the ‘whole of Scandinavia watching him’, according to Lars.
He bought him for the equivalent of ZAR 200 000 at a sale in Sweden and is understandably excited by his prospects.
Volatile is trained by Jessica Long, who worked at various stud farms in Britain and Ireland and met her husband and assistant Padraig at Coolmore, before moving back to her native Sweden to train.
Volatile won his first start at Jagersro on September 17 last year by 16 lengths in course record time and is a gelded son of Strategic Prince. He was then Gr3 placed in Newmarket.
“He is an exciting horse. He won his maiden by 50m on the dirt on debut in Sweden, and admittedly didn’t beat much. He then ran third in a Gr3 on the turf at Newmarket. There have been substantial offers for him from Hong Kong but the syndicate that owns him is quite large, and would rather take their chances in Dubai and enjoy him,” he said.
The other runner of interest to Kelp is the Niels Petersen trained Wild Citizen, an American bred stayer who has won his only start to date.
“Wild Citizen is a lovely horse, but is a Derby type and will need much further to show his ability,” said Lars.
“They are both having prep runs,” he confirmed.
Of some interest to SA racing fans in Dubai, beyond of course the Mike De Kock runners, will also be the appearance of Gavin Van Zyl’s former SA Classic winner Slumdogmillionaire, who is saddled by Doug Watson in the final race, the Mina Rashid, at 20h15.
