Justin Snaith is unstoppable in the Cape juvenile races and racked up his third win from three races with Captain Al colt, Sergeant Hardy at Kenilworth on Sunday. Five races later he was back in the winner’s box courtesy of the multiple champion sire again, when Victoria Lavelle won the R150 000 Listed Laisserfaire Stakes.
Victoria Lavelle (S’manga Khumalo) runs on strongly to register her first stakes win (Pic – Wayne Marks)
The former SA champion trainer has enjoyed extraordinary success with the Captain Al progeny and the speedy 3yo Victoria Lavelle put her hand up as a decent sprint prospect, when registering her first stakes success against some quality opposition, that included Gr1 winner, Entisaar.
Victoria Lavelle produced a scintillating display of speed in the 1100m feature and stayed on strongly when it counted to beat the long rested (and nibbled at) Champery by 1,50 lengths in a time of 65,93 secs.
Dean Kannemeyer’s Real Princess was best of the more fancied runners, doing her optimum work late to finish a head back in third – indicating again that she may well be crying out for a little more ground.
Mike de Kock’s Entisaar ran under 2 lengths back in fifth, in another below-par performance.
Winning jockey S’manga Khumalo said that Victoria Lavelle had demonstrated plenty of natural speed.
“She played up before the start and was slightly slow away. But things went very well and she won convincingly,” he said.
Justin Snaith – another good day at the office
Trainer Justin Snaith said that he was excited to get a call from S’manga Khumalo’s agent to enquire about a ride in the feature.
“You have to have a top jockey on board and S’manga rode a great race today. Funny enough, Bernard (Fayd’herbe) rode her last week and said that this filly is in a bad place. I took her to the beach and she was so relaxed, and gave me a good feeling.”
Part owner John Freeman said that the winner was named after fellow partner Countess S Labia’s late sister and that he could also not take the credit for selecting her at sale.
“Chris and Jono (Snaith) were keen on her,” he said modestly as he reflected on a team effort that is set to produce a good return.
Victoria Lavelle is a R300 000 National Yearling Sale purchase and took her record to 4 wins with 4 places from 11 starts and stakes of R269 325.
Bred by Team Valor International, she is a daughter of multiple champion sire Captain Al out of the three-time Western Winter mare, Chiquita, who won from 1000m to 1200m.
Pencil her name in.
