Ridgemont Highlands stallion and Champion Sprinter Rafeef enjoyed a red-letter day at Turffontein on Saturday. The son of Redoute’s Choice celebrated his first Gr1 winner with Aragosta digging deep to win the R1 500 000 World Sports Betting SA Derby.
On a memorable day, South Africa’s leading first season sire of 2020/21, Rafeef not only produced a Gr1 winner over 2450m, his sons filled the exacta in a Gr3 1100m contest to demonstrate his versatility and exciting ability.
Going off at 4-1, Rafeef’s son Aragosta (4-1) benefitted from another superbly judged ride by the rampant Richard Fourie to get the better of Fabian Habib’s 11-2 shot Zeus by a half length in a time of 158,14 secs.
Aragosta. Image: Candiese Lenferna
Richard Fourie has Aragosta in front as Zeus (Keagan de Melo) capitulates in the final strides (Pic – JC Photos)
The top two had come from near last into the straight and were 5,50 lengths clear of third placed London Roads (8-1).
The rest, many of which were pulling hard, were well beaten.
Mike de Kock was saddling a double after Malmoos (2021), and his sixth SA Derby winner since Horse Chestnut got the ball rolling in 1999. Runner-up Fabian Habib saddled the 2020 shock winner Out Of Your League.
A R220 000 National Yearling Sale graduate, Aragosta made it 4 wins with 2 places from his 8 starts for stakes of R1 311 375.
Aragosta. Image: Candiese Lenferna
The SA Derby winners are all smiles! (Pic – Candiese Lenferna)
Bred by Wilgerbosdrift and Mauritzfontein, Aragosta is out of the Galileo mare Miss Galidora, who was placed over 2000m at 3 in the UK in 2 starts. She is a half sister to French Guineas winner Clodovil. She throws stamina into the mix!
The World Sports Betting SA Derby is a golden ticket qualifier for the R5 million Hollywoodbets Durban July to be run on 2 July 2022 at Hollywoodbets Greyville.
