Winning Form’s brand new jockey Warren Kennedy maintained his relentless march towards the SA Championship title when he rounded off another top weekend at the office with a cucumber-cool ride to win the R120 000 Marula Sprint at Hollywoodbets Scottsville on Sunday for trainer Paul Peter.
The Sporting Post Personality of the week, Kennedy and Peter are trading at a 23% win strike-rate and while they may have expected even more, they ended what was a happy raid down to the KZN Capital City with a double – including the non black-type sprint feature.
The happy Hyperpaint team with Rebel’s Champ (Pic – Candiese Lenferna)
It meant 5 weekend winners for Kennedy – he rode a treble at Turffontein on Saturday, including a double for another bang in-form trainer in Candice Dawson.
He is now on 146 winners – 45 ahead of nearest rival, Greg Cheyne.
The 5yo Rebel’s Champ, the Gr1 horse that still needs to realise his trainer’s expectations of him, looked the exotic banker and overcame a few serious traffic issues to register his ninth career win.
He held off Cumulus (14-1) by a quarter length, with the betting drifter and low flying Drunken Sailor (14-1) sneaking up on the wide outside to grab third.
The super consistent Rebel’s Champ’s win time for the 1200m straight was 69,10 secs. It was his first victory since the Decermber 2018 Gr3 Lebelo Sprint – and long overdue!
A bargain R10 000 purchase off the 2016 CTS August Two-Year-Old Sale, Rebel’s Champ is now a winner of 9 races for the Hyperpaint Syndicate, with 11 places from 33 starts for stakes of R925 775.
He was bred by the Nine Bridges Association Syndicate and is a son of 2009 Equus Champion Sprinter Rebel King (National Emblem) – and the first foal of the one-time winner Anne Bonny (Captain Al).
KZN log-leader Garth Puller and apprentice Luke Ferraris also enjoyed a good double on the hot afternoon.
