The smart Argonaut mare Clear Sailing won Sunday’s R150 000 Listed KwaZulu Natal Stakes at Scottsville five months in foal and in the process picked up some well-timed bold black-type.
Clear Sailing (Anthony Delpech) beats Free State (Alec Forbes) in a glorious swansong
With the official going changed to ‘soft’ in the course of the meeting, the complexion of the competitive fillies and mares sprint changed, but coming out in a galloping mood on her swansong appearance, Clear Sailing proved a touch too strong for her seven opponents.
She enjoyed the hearty pace set by Corinne Bestel’s superfast She’s A Fortress (who probably blew her chances by breaking the gate early), and when challenged by Wendy Whitehead’s previously unbeaten Free State, she rallied strongly under her favourite jockey Anthony Delpech to win going away by 0,75 lengths in a time of 57,07 secs.
Free State was by no means disgraced at her third start and she looks Champions Season material.
In the process of winning, Clear Sailing registered a feature double for her trainer Mike Miller and her discarded sire Argonaut.
And with the son of Western Winter off our radar screens, Murphy showed us again how to get a stallion to produce a few winners!
Two of Argonaut’s 3yo sons in Alistair Gordon’s Beat The Retreat and the Michael Roberts-trained Natal look to be KZN Champions Season hopefuls – the former runs in the Gr3 Byerley Turk at Greyville on Friday evening.
Argonaut in his heyday
A handsome chestnut, Argonaut was Equus Champion 2yo of 2007 and the highest rated 2yo in the history of racing in SA.
After winning his maiden, he won the Gr1 Golden Horseshoe by 2,50 lengths and the Gr1 Premier’s Champion Stakes by 5 lengths. He ran second in his only other Gr1 start at 2.
He raced only four times, before being exported to Australia, where he was injured and never raced.
Bred by Geoff Armitage, Clear Sailing is out of the five-time winning daughter of Goldkeeper, Clear Up. The winner was raced by longstanding KZN owner Cecil Baitz and his son Gary, who is resident in Australia.
Clear Sailing was purchased for R350 000 on the Cape Premier Yearling Sale Book 1.
She retires on a memorable winning note with a record of 4 wins with 7 places from 15 starts and stakes of R345 450.
