Ridgemont Highlands have bred an outstanding filly in the form of Make It Snappy. The latter stamped herself a leading contender for the Equus Award of Champion 3YO Filly this season when she downed an outstanding field to win Saturday’s G1 Cartier Paddock Stakes, South Africa’s premier race for fillies and mares.
Winner of three of her four previous starts, Make It Snappy came into Saturday’s R1 000 000 race off a convincing win in the G1 World Sports Betting Cape Fillies Guineas and made it a G1 double with a courageous effort in the 2023 Paddock Stakes.
A daughter of Ridgemont Highlands’ late, great sire Dynasty, Make It Snappy was given a confident ride by Louis Mxothwa in Saturday’s race.
Mxothwa, who has ridden Make It Snappy in four of her five starts, wasted no time in taking his mount to the front, and Make It Snappy went on to make the running.
Turning for home, Make It Snappy showed no signs of stopping and kept finding more in the closing stages to hold off reigning Horse Of The Year Captain’s Ransom and win by a long neck. Last season’s G1 Woolavington 2000 winner Silver Darling was well held in third, with 2022 G1 Hollywoodbets Durban July winner Sparkling Water back in fourth spot.
Trained by Brett Crawford, Make It Snappy, who races for the Hollywood Syndicate and Ridgemont Highlands, has now earned more than R1.357 million with the promise of plenty more to come!
One of 17 G1 winners for her much missed sire, the blue blooded Make It Snappy is out of the winning Western Winter mare Icy Winter Air, who ran third in the G2 SA Fillies Nursery. In turn, Icy Winter Air, a daughter of champion Icy Air, is a three-parts sister to Equus Champion, and G1 Cape Flying Championship winner, Russet Air (a son of Western Winter horse What A Winter).
Ridgemont Highlands will be offering buyers a chance to buy their own Make It Snappy at Thursday’s Cape Premier Yearling Sale Powered by Tattersalls. The Robertson farm will be offering yearlings by a host of exciting stallions namely Canford Cliffs, Futura, One World, Rafeef and Trippi.
One undoubted potential standout in the farm’s Premier Sale draft is Show Off (Lot 31), a colt by five time G1 winner Canford Cliffs, with this colt the first foal of top racemare Front And Centre. The latter, like Make It Snappy, is a G1 Cape Fillies Guineas winning daughter of Dynasty and Show Off looks bound to have plenty of admirers!
El Capitan (Lot 117) is another colt with plenty of upside. A son of Ridgemont Highlands’ sensational sire Rafeef, El Capitan (who, like Make It Snappy, is out of a mare by Western Winter) is a half-brother to Listed East Cape Nursery/City Of Cape Town Summer Juvenile Stakes winner Cliff Top, who recently romped to a three and a quarter length win over 1000m.
Other exciting prospects on sale include Superhero (Lot 69), whose Ridgemont Highlands bred full-brother Warrior finished third in Saturday’s G2 Anthonij Rupert Wyne Premier Trophy, and Sir Korski (Lot 85). The latter, a colt by Rafeef, has a real stallion’s pedigree and hails from the same female line as champion sires Encosta De Lago, Flying Spur and Holy Roman Emperor as well as the exciting young South African sire Erupt.
Images: Chase Liebenberg
