Varsfontein’s young Captain Al stallion Erik The Red celebrated his first winner at Turffontein on Saturday when his Alec Laird-trained son Tenjiku showed resolve down the long Turffontein straight to crack his maiden at the fourth time of asking after running two places.
Erik The Red’s son, Tenjiku (Diego de Gouveia) cracks his maiden (Pic – JC Photos)
The Varsfontein bred gelding showed an appreciation for the 1400m, and under a well-judged ride from Diego de Gouveia he led all the way and stayed on resolutely at 17-10, despite drifting out pressure from the likes of highly the highly regarded Whispering Death (3-1), who was beaten 1,40 lengths in a time of 87,54 secs.
On his return from the Cape, Mano Pandaram’s Porridge Boy (9-2) showed up well to stay on for third and shouldn’t be long in winning.
A R260 000 Cape Yearling Sale graduate, the winner is raced by the ‘Atticus Finch gang’ of Gary Cornwall, Gary Basel and Lance Clark.
Tenjiku is out of the mare Kawakami – whose sire Master Of My Fate is closely related to Erik The Red.
For trivia’s sake and to understand the winner’s name, Tenjiku (meaning ‘heaven’) is the obsolete Japanese word for ancient India, being the Japanese pronunciation of the archaic Chinese name for India, ‘Tianzhu’.
Trained in his time by Justin Snaith, Erik The Red was a high-class and precocious galloper who won six of ten starts. The well-bred bay, who won from 1000-1200m, won five graded or listed races, including a trio of graded triumphs.
Erik The Red
He won the 2020 Kepu Gr3 Cape Of Good Hope Nursery, the 2020 Epol Gr2 Umkhomazi Stakes and the 2020 Cape Racing Sales Gr2 Cape Merchants.
Erik The Red is one of 105 stakes winners for his late champion sire Captain Al, whose sire sons also include the sensational One World as well as proven Gr1 stallions Captain Of All and William Longsword.
Bred on the same Captain Al/Western Winter cross as Gr1 winners Carry On Alice and Tap O’ Noth, Erik The Red is one of five winners produced by the Western Winter mare Covenant.
The latter, also the dam of Gr1 Gold Medallion runner-up Varallo and the stakes-placed dam of Gr2 winner Cala Muretta, was a top-class performer whose seven career victories included the 2011 Klawervlei Gr1 Majorca Stakes and three other graded victories.
Bred on very similar lines to the Captain Al sired Triple Crown-winning sire Malmoos, Erik The Red hails from the immediate family of Varsfontein Stud’s top notch sire Master Of My Fate.
