The well-related Imperial Stride colt Pera Palace produced an impressive display of speed when he spreadeagled his field to win the R135 000 Sophomore 1000 at the Vaal on Saturday.
Armchair ride for KJeagan De Melo on Pera Palace (Pic -JC Photographics)
One of four winners on the afternoon for trainer Paul Peter, Pera Palace was never headed and blitzed away from his eight opponents to win at generous odds of 14-1 by 2 lengths in a time of 57,23 secs.
Keagan De Melo won’t earn an easier commission all season and the lightly raced 3yo looks like he is headed in the right direction.
A major interest in this race was the first run as a 3yo of the Gr1 Allan Robertson Championship winner Brave Mary. Returning from an 18 week break and racing in the Team Valor International silks for the first time, she was off the gallop early but challenged late to run second. The run will bring her on.
The rest were well beaten, with the winner’s stablemate Alpine Echo sadly being pulled out of the race after breaking down.
Bred by Riethuiskraal, the winner is a son of Imperial Stride (Indian Ridge) out of the five time winner, Perfect Guest (Northern Guest). That makes him a half-brother to the top class 2002 Gr1 Paddock Stakes winner Crimson Palace (Elliodor). The latter was ironically bought in training by Team Valor International – who race the second-placed Brave Mary.
Pera Palace was well bought by Paul Peter at R40 000 off the 2016 CTS Ready To Run Sale.
He has won 2 races (both over 1000m) with 1 place from his 4 starts for stakes of R156 875.
