Justin Snaith has ruled out suggestions that he might send horses to Johannesburg for the Sansui Summer Cup and other valuable features in the first half of the season as he seeks to retain his trainers’ championship.

He said: “I have tried this before and it’s simply not worth it. I have to take 50kg off a horse in order to run it at altitude. Often the horses come back sore and it can do irreparable damage. They could pay the stakes as US dollars and it still wouldn’t be worth it!”

Ridgemont was the buyer of the R1.2 million Pathfork filly that topped last week’s National 2-Y-O sale and racing manager Craig Carey confirmed at the weekend that the Highlands-consigned filly will be trained by Brett Crawford who signed the docket.

The R90 246 average was 11.7% up on last year but well short of the 2016 figure of R120 808.

By Michael Clower

Featured Image: Brett Crawford (Liesl King)