David Thiselton

In racing there is the saying, “It takes just one horse” and the one horse in the ownership career of owner/breeder Lady Christine Laidlaw is the current Equus Champion Broodmare mare Real Princess, who on Saturday became the mother of two multiple Gr 1 winners when the Dean Kannemeyer-trained Gimmethegreenlight gelding, The Real Prince won the country’s most prestigious weight for age mile, the L’Ormarins King’s Plate.

It was a fourth L’Ormarins King’s Plate/Queen’s Plate win for the Kannemeyer yard and his last two have been for Lady Laidlaw’s Khaya Stables, although unlike her 2014 winner Capetown Noir this one was homebred.

The Real Prince will now attempt to become the eighth horse in history to have won both the Hollywoodbets Durban July and Cape Town’s traditional biggest race, the Gr 1 wfa WSB Met over 2000m, although Kannemeyer called the King’s Plate South Africa’s greatest wfa event after Saturday’s victory and not many would disagree with him, especially considering it now carries a “win and you’re in” condition for the Gr 1 Breeders’ Cup Mile.

Kannemeyer said in the build up to the King’s Plate that The Real Prince had come on from his run in the Green Point and had come on further with an 800m sharpening gallop at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth on the Tuesday, twelve days ahead of the race.

He said there was still the Met to come, but reckoned he had done enough work to run a big race in the King’s Plate.

He initially shortened on Saturday to become second favourite behind the hot favourite Jan Van Goyen, but he then began drifting out alarmingly and started 25/2.

The betting drift was not a reflection of stable confidence, because Craig Zackey afterwards said that he had no doubt The Real Prince was the best miler in the country.

There were many who believed he would win the Gr 1 Hollywoodbets Gold Challenge last season after his eye-catching 1,35 length fourth from a wide draw in the Gr 2 IOS Drill Hall Stakes, not knowing that Kannemeyer and Khaya Stables racing manager Jehan Malherbe would decide to protect his Hollywoodbets Durban July weight by missing the Gold Challenge and going straight for the July.

Many felt the latter was a high risk decision that could well backfire, considering The Real Prince had a stamina doubt over the 2200m trip, being a full brother to the champion sprinter Gimme A Prince, and he would also be having his second run after a rest in the July. However, the two stalwarts were vindicated.

Today the decision looks full of wisdom, because as a gelding there was always going to be plenty of opportunity for The Real Prince to win Gr 1 weight for age miles and other wfa races,  whilst there was only ever going to be once chance for him to go into the July with a relatively light weight.

The Real Prince was held back by Zackey on Saturday after jumping from draw six out of 14 and this allowed him to find the rail near the back. Dave The King set a strong pace with Jan van Goyen and Legal Counsel a few lengths behind him.

There was then a gap of a few more lengths back to the rest, who were led by Sail The Seas with The Real Prince traveling comfortably about five lengths behind the latter.

Dave The King and Jan Van Goyen were soon spent forces with The Real Prince eating up the ground on the inside rail and it appeared that he just needed the gaps to open to win the race. It looked like he was going better than Sail The Seas, who was about to hit the front.

However, the confidence in The Real Prince’s winning chances momentarily dissipated when 50/1 shot Questioning suddenly appeared on the outside, having come from near the back.  Questioning looked all over the winner going through the 200m as he was closing fast.

However, The Real Prince had managed to thread his way between the tiring Legal Counsel and Sail The Seas and having done so he then found extra.

He managed to somehow repel Questioning to win by a shorthead and thus deny Vaughan Marshall a second successive King’s Plate.

See It Again flew from near the back of the field to be beaten just 0,25 lengths into third, a neck ahead of Sail The Seas.

The  67/1 outsider Cosmic Speed was a 3,45 length fifth narrowly ahead of Sugar Mountain and Gladatorian.

The best decision of the Kannemeyer and Malherbe brains trust was to buy the Trippi filly The Real Princess for R2.7 million, because not only was she a Gr 1 winner, but to date she has produced the three-time Gr 1-winning champion sprinter Gimme A Prince, the twice Gr 1 winner The Real Prince and one other Graded winner plus the highly promising Gimmie Rules and there are more to come.

There was a dream result in the Gr 1 World Pool Cape Flying Championship as the East Cape raider Kingdundee, a Clive Murphy-homebred  four-year-old gelding, blitzed them from the highest draw of all in the 14 horse field to lead from start to finish under Calvin Habib.

He gave Dean Smith his first Gr 1 winner just a few months after he had taken over the yard from his late father Gavin and it was also a first Gr 1 winner for the Galileo sire The United States.

Kingdundee beat home the Stuart Ferrie-trained I Am Giant by 0,75 lengths with Outlaw King next best followed by Asiye Phambili, Surjay and Cafe Culture, while the hot favourite Buffalo Storm Cody could only manage a 2,35 length seventh.

The Gr 1 Cartier Paddock Stakes saw the Justin Snaith-trained Maine Chance Farms-bred Legislate filly Wish List producing a sustained finished under veteran jockey Andrew Fortune to prevail by half-a-length from fellow three-year-old Reet Petite. Rainbow Lorikeet, Double Grand Slam and Minogue were next best. Wish List is owned by Nancy Hossack and JI Bloch and it was an eighth win in this iconic race for Justin Snaith and a second Gr 1 winner for Legislate.