When you’re hot, you’re hot! Justin Snaith and Grant Van Niekerk returned to their favourite feature hunting ground at Kenilworth on Saturday and upset the more fancied big guns with the smart Choisir gelding Sir Frenchie swooping late to win the R150 000 Fairview Wines Listed Sophomore Sprint.
Grant van Niekerk gets Sir Frenchie to finish with zest and beat Corne Orffer on the free striding Bold Respect (Pic – Chase Liebenberg Photography)
With Gr1 winner Sand And Sea, and the very consistent Brett Crawford galloper Bold Respect dominating the betting boards, some punters may have missed the move to fit the headgear and return to the sprints for the Australian-bred Sir Frenchie.
The combination worked a charm! Sir Frenchie had appeared to have shown an appreciation for the extra ground as he ran two good places from far off the pace, before being humbled in the Cape Guineas.
On Saturday and back to the basics, he showed his real worth.
Van Niekerk had Sir Frenchie some way off the pace set by Bold Respect and Woljayrine, and at the 350m the race looked to develop into a match between Sand And Sea and Bold Respect, who was galloping strongly in front.
Sadly for Dennis Drier and his connections, Sand And Sea had nothing to come when asked and offered no challenge as Sir Frenchie bounded up the rail to snare Bold Respect in the final stride to win by a short head in a time of 71,13 secs.
Woljayrine stayed on for third, with Sand And Sea a weak fourth.
Post-race celebration (Pic – Chase Liebenberg Photography)
Sir Frenchie is a winner of 3 races with 4 places from his 8 starts and has banked stakes of R379 000.
An A$82,500 Magic Millions Adelaide purchase for Paul Lafferty from the Attunga Stud draft, Sir Frenchie is by Coolmore stallion Choisir (Danehill Dancer) and was the first winner for four-time winning Viscount mare Volando.
He was resold here on the 2016 CTS Cape Ready To Run Sale for R500 000.
The rampant Snaith and Van Niekerk combination were to go on and register the feature double a half hour later…
