Rebel King’s First. Karl Neisius enjoys an armchair ride on the Dean Kannemeyer-trained Letas Bonnet
The Dean Kannemeyer-trained Letas Bonnet put first season sire Rebel King on the winner scoreboard with a fluent win in the opener at Kenilworth on 19 December. The Gr1 winning sprinter, a son of National Emblem, was bound to strike early as he has stamped his first crop with his handsome good looks and his own indelible spirit of speed.
Trained in his racing career by Charles Laird, the brilliant chestnut is a son of ARCSA Champion National Emblem out of the Badger Land mare Cousin Linda.
And the market sure is talking about the Rebel Kings. The youngsters appear to take after Dad, in more ways than one.
Lovely temperaments, sound and workmanlike well-sized specimens.And mostly chestnuts too.
A winner of 8 races from 1000 to 1200m, with a lifetime highest MR of 111, Rebel King looks set to make a huge impact. His progeny have displayed his astounding precocious speed and lest we forget that he ended his first racing season undefeated in his three starts at 2yrs.
His juvenile victories included a win in the Gr2 SA Nursery run over 1160m in new race record time.
Despite his early enthusiasm and forward attitude, Rebel King trained on into a cracking sprinter and interestingly achieved a peak when winning the Gr1 Cape Flying Championship at 5.
His first winner was appropriatey bred by Klawervlei Stud.
Letas Bonnet is out of the one-time winning Parade Leader mare, Easter Bonnet. She is a medium-sized chestnut filly and quite a unique achiever coming from a yard that hardly ever races them at 2!
The Maiden Juvenile Plate for fillies saw a field of seven go to post and with Karl Neisius a late replacement for the indisposed Grant Behr, Letas Bonnet had plenty of friends in the betting market, particularly after her excellent debut effort three weeks earlier.
Slow away, she was relaxed beautifully and tracked the pacy Tsotsoma before drawing clear late down the inside to go on and beat the 8-10 favourite Princess Creo by 1,75 lengths in a time of 61,31 secs.
Trained the winner. Dean Kannemeyer doesn’t push the 2yo’s
Rebel King has everything that it takes to make it as a sire in a tough world.
He averaged R102 500 for 4 horses sold at last week’s Cape Thoroughbred Sales Ready To Run Sale.
The Rebel Kings were split evenly between the sexes at the sale held in searing heat in Durbanville.
A colt called Red Bull Kid out of Cabernet Al (by Captain Al) sold for R 80 000 to Louis Goosen.
The second Rebel King colt sold was named Glowing Liquid and is out of Golden Liquid (by Sunny North ). This fellow went for R160 000 to Mayfair Speculators.
Louis Goosen bought his second Rebel King when Sarah For Certain, out of Future Award (by Argosy) was knocked down for R80 000.
Glen Kotzen bought the second filly named Precious Priscilla. She is a lovely specimen out of the Fort Wood mare Auberge and was sold for R 90 000.
Rebel King stands at Klawervlei Stud for a fee of R10 000.
They’re real racehorses. They’re pretty quick and don’t hang around.
So you snooze you lose!
