The R200 000 Kepu Gr3 Cape Of Good Hope Nursery produced a Captain Al exacta when two sons of the late champion sire entertained the Cape Town Prawn Festival crowd at Kenilworth on Saturday in a thrilling finish, that attracted the attention of the Stipes.
Despite being in command for much of the 1200m contest, the popular Justin Snaith -trained favourite Erik The Red (11-20), labelled the best bet of the day, ran green when coming under pressure in the latter stages and shifted into the path of the late finishing Joseph Barry (8-1), under Anton Marcus
Only 0,30 lengths separated the two at the line but the Snaith runner always looked to hold the upper hand and the Stipes agreed, taking no further action after wacthing film a few times.
Erik The Red clocked 72,26 secs under Richard Fourie.
Vaughan Marshall also saddled the third horse home when first-timer Rascallion (14-1) stayed on 1,25 lengths further back in third.
The rest were well beaten.
The winner is a Varsfontein bred and raced son of deceased champion Captain Al (Al Mufti) out of the 2011 Gr1 Majorca Stakes victress and seven-time winner Covenant (Western Winter).
Erik The Red has won three races from four starts for stakes of and took his stakes bank to R270Â 625.
He will now likely next see action in KZN during the SA Champions Season.
