Rampant! Red Ray (Anton Marcus) charges clear to win the Gr3 Cape Classic (Pic : Equine Edge)
Trainer Joey Ramsden showed his Cape Guineas hand at Kenilworth on Saturday when the Ingrid and Markus Jooste owned Red Ray made short work of a high quality field to win the R200 000 Elusive Fort Gr3 Cape Classic run over 1400m.
The Cape Classic honour roll of the past few years is not exactly overflowing with classic stars, although placed runners include bright lights of the ilk of What A Winter and Gimmethegreenlight.
But if ever we have seen a Guineas candidate, Red Ray fits the mould!
The son of recently deceased champion sire Western Winter has all the trademarks of a top horse, and his next target will no doubt be the R1 million winner’s cheque on offer in the R2 million Lanzerac Ready To Run Stakes to be run on Saturday 23 November.
A glance at the log for that non black type race indicates that he should be the proverbial penalty kick.
The Somerset 1200 winner was sold on last year’s Cape Ready To Run Sale for R800 000. Two of the 163 lots at the Cape sale made R1m, with one of them, the Vaughan Marshall trained Exelero running fifth on Saturday, in the same silks as Red Ray.
On a superb card that proved that quality racing makes for good turnovers, punters voted from their pockets as the carryover aided Cape Pick 6 pool rocketed to a net R 2639228.80!
But the race we all wanted to see was the Elusive Fort Syndicate sponsored feature and we were not let down by any stretch of the imagination.
Anton Marcus was little more than a passenger as Red Ray tracked the pacemaking Ace Antonius all the way around , before being delivered at the 300m marker.
Given his head the colt strode clear in a time of 85,08 secs to beat the impressive fast finisher Legislate by 2,50 lengths.
In a tightly contested scrap for third, De Kock ran on doggedly down the rail to hold off the Glen Kotzen trained Antonius Du Bois, who stayed on well under a big weight after a rest.
Disappointments of the race, if one can use that term for those that trail in the wake of a machine, show a few with dented reputations.
These include the quietly fancied KZN visitors Sagetator (sixth and 4,35 lengths behind) and Eternal Jet (ninth and 5,65 lengths behind), as well as the previously unbeaten Strongman (eighth and 5,15 lengths behind).
Top Team. Joey Ramsden and Anton Marcus
The winner of the inaugural KZN Yearling Sale Million, Ace Antonius, finished last, after running wide and being sacrificed in a pacemaking role. In defence of his rider, that may have been the only option from his poor draw.
Red Ray has won 4 of his 5 starts, his only loss being a meritorious second behind Willow Magic in the Gr1 SA Nursery on Champions Day, at his last start.
He was crowned Cape Racing’s Juvenile Male Of The Year at the end of last season, and looks a ready made successor as Goodhope Racing’s flagbearer for the recently departed Variety Club.
He took his earnings to R478 750 with this win and his hefty Cape Ready To Run Sale price tag of R800 000 suddenly make for good reading.
Red Ray was bred by Lammerskraal Stud and is by recently deceased Western Winter, out of the prolific winner producing four time winning Pas De Quoi mare, Nacarat.
The whole family can run and they have been good to Joey Ramsden.
The outspoken Englishman trained Red Ray’s Group performing full sister Nania a few years ago, with great success.
Red Ray’s full brother Brutal Force was sold as Lot 1 on the 2013 Cape Thoroughbred Sale Book 1 for R1,5 million. He was signed for by Mayfair Speculators and was Ramsden’s pre sale pick, if memory of a helicopter flit on a sunny Monday into the country, serves us correctly!
