Ridgemont Highlands’ Redoute’s Choice stallion Rafeef continued his dream season on Saturday at Turffontein when his daughter Ipso Facto stayed on strongly to signal her SA Oaks aspirations when winning the R150 000 Ormond Ferraris Listed Oaks Trial in style for trainer Ashley Fortune.
Rafeef has been a revelation at stud and with first-crop Gr1 winners from 1000m to 2450m, he is proving a dream stallion and continues to churn out the winners.
Just hours prior to Ipso Facto’s stakes victory, Rafeef’s son Positive Attitude cracked his maiden at his sixth start over 2000m.
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Ipso Facto comes home powerfully under Ryan Munger to beat Silver Maple (Richard Fourie) in an exciting finish (Pic – JC Photos)
Bryanston Auctioneers-sponsored jockey Ryan Munger is riding with great confidence and he judged his ride to perfection, bringing Ipso Facto between runners at the 200m after a door looked to close on her.
But a cool Munger had the situation under control and the 7-2 Ipso Facto took the honours to beat a fast finishing Red Maple (11-2) by 1,35 lengths in a time of 127,53 secs.
Littlemarysunshine (8-1) and Raratonga Rose (5-2) dead heated for third.
Bred by Wilgerbosdrift & Mauritzfontein, Ipso Facto is by Rafeef (Redoute’s Choice) out of the well-related unraced UK-bred Machiavellian mare Awaited. The half-sister to Esmatina hails from the famous ‘E’ family.
A R300 000 BSA National 2yo Sale purchase, Ipso Facto is a winner of 3 races with 2 places from 8 starts for stakes of R232 750.
Watch the replay here: