An 108th career Gr1 success for Ridgemont Racing’s former SA Champion jockey Anton Marcus, and an overdue Gr1 icebreaker for the leading Cape breeders’ Australian-bred speed queen and equine millionaire, Run Fox Run.
As the shadows lengthened over Kenilworth on Cape Town Met day on Saturday, the sensational showing by the Brett Crawford-trained Run Fox Run to win the prestigious Gr1 Cape Flying Championship would go down as a standout performance on a superb day of racing.
Anton Marcus and his flying Fox(Pic- Chase Liebenberg)
First run at Milnerton 52 years ago, the ‘Cape Flying’ has become the benchmark for sprinting excellence. The honour roll is populated by champions over the decades, with Ridgemont’s crack flyer Run Fox Run now joining the illustrious company of the likes of the great Sentinel, and subsequent multiple SA Champion Sire Jet Master, amongst a host of big names of the South African speed turf.
While Run Fox Run was registering her eighth win from just eleven starts on Saturday, she turned the tables on her Gr1 SA Fillies Sprint conqueror, multiple Equus champion Celtic Sea, and courageously lifted her game from a fourth in the same event a year ago, to have her top conditioner Brett Crawford conceding that she was ‘the best today that I have ever had her’.
“This is how really good she is off a perfect prep! We knew she had this in her. I’m thrilled for the Ridgemont team. Let’s enjoy the moment,” added Crawford, who said that future plans would be discussed with the Kieswetter family.
Jockey Anton Marcus, who had ridden a record 107 Gr1 winners prior to Saturday, has been aboard at 6 of Run Fox Run’s 8 victories, and was overcome with a rare show of emotion as he hugged and kissed the magnificent mare.
In his typically laconic style, Marcus told the Sporting Post that Run Fox Run was ‘very good’ and that the Brett Crawford training feat was achieved with ‘military precision’.
Flashing her awesome power and speed, the daughter of Foxwedge burned the emerald Kenilworth turf and enjoyed the windless conditions to win in 57,74 secs.
“I will make a statement – she would have won today in a gentle breeze, or even in a howling south-easter. She was just better than a really class field of sprinters,” he said.
Marcus said that Run Fox Run was at the top of her game and he’d consider it a privilege to return in 2022 for a defence of the prestige title.
“I am not aware of what the plans are for her. I’d obviously love her to stay in training!”
The Ridgemont team have been building their broodmare band with Gr1 performed impeccably-bred athletes for some seasons, and the victory by their magnificent mare had Craig Kieswetter over the moon.
James Crawford and Glen MacGregor lead the steep star in on Saturday (Pic- Chase Liebenberg)
“At Ridgemont Highlands we are always striving for excellence. It’s a fact that reaching the top in the thoroughbred breeding industry is a process of selection, application and investment – peppered with a bit of luck along the way. A proud asset for our brand, Run Fox Run has been a stalwart of consistency and courage and she has formed a lethal partnership with both Anton Marcus and Greg Cheyne. We saw a show of speed here in a high quality field that included an SA Champion Sprinter, that simply took our breath away,” he said.
Craig confirmed Brett Crawford’s statement that plans for the relatively lightly raced Run Fox Run were fluid. It would be a treat for SA racing fans were she to make her to KwaZulu-Natal for the SA Champions Season!
Bred by Mill Park, Quality TB Joint Venture, SA, Run Fox Run was an A$420,000 buy from the 2017 Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale.
She is the fourth Gr1 winner for the Fastnet Rock stallion Foxwedge, whose five wins included the Gr1 William Reid Stakes. Foxwedge spent the middle of last decade at Whitsbury Manor Stud in Hampshire before returning to Australia, and has been based at Woodside Park Stud in Victoria.
The champion is out of General Nediym mare Victory Cry – dam also of Heritage Stakes winner Guard Of Honour, and a full-sister to the stakes winning Victory Chant.
A close relative of Run Fox Run will be consigned by Mill Park at the Inglis Premier Yearling Sale at Oaklands Junction from 28 February to 2 March 2021.
Lot 540 is a colt by Gr1 Caulfield Guineas winner Shooting To Win, out of the Starcraft mare Champagne Jane, a half-sister to Run Fox Run.
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