The Ridgemont Stud-homebred colt Esteemed, whom Ridgemont own in partnership with Devin Heffer, made a huge impression on debut and the good looking son of Rafeef is the favourite for Saturday’s Gr 2 TAB SA Nursery. (JC Photos).
Ridgemont Stud have been virtually unbeatable with their two-year-old runners this season and their winning streak could continue on Saturday with the Mike and Matthew de Kock-trained Rafeef colt Esteemed in the Gr 2 TAB SA Nursery.
Eight Ridgemont-bred two-year-olds have run this season to date and seven of them have won, six of them have won on debut and two of them are unbeaten after two runs.
The seven winners have won nine races between them.
The only one not to have won finished third on debut.
Of the seven winners, six of them are owned by Ridgemont in partnership with Devin Heffer.
That partnership also owns the one which has not won.
The only other one not to have won on debut is owned by Mike Fullard and James Drew and he won third time out.
Canford Cliffs is sire of four of the winners including the unbeaten in two starts filly Direct Hit, who is trained by Alan Greeff. She travelled to Cape Town for her second start and won the Gr 3 Splashout Cape Of Good Hope Nursery over 1200m by an easy 2,75 lengths under Richard Fourie, beating the promising Winter Snap. Only two horses from that race have appeared again and both of them won.
The Greef-trained Canford Cliffs filly Hot Sauce also looks most promising as she beat a Cape Town raider, who had decent form, by 2,75 lengths on debut and the third-placed horse was beaten eight lengths.
Rafeef is sire of two of the Ridgemont/Devin Heffer-owned two-year-old winners, including the Mike and Matthew de Kock-trained Easy Tiger, who has won both starts, and the De Kock-trained Esteemed, who won by 4,50 lengths on debut.
The De Kocks also train Read All About It, who provided Hawwaam with his first win when winning on debut, although he was a disappointing 3,60 length sixth when running in a Listed race second time out.
On Saturday, the fledgling Ridgemont/Devin Heffer partnership can scale a new height as Esteemed runs in the Gr 2 TAB SA Nursery under Ridgemont’s retained jockey Richard Fourie.
He is drawn two out of just six runners and such was the impression he made on debut he is priced up as 8/10 favourite by Hollywoodbets.
The tall, good looking Rafeef colt displayed a huge action, but is still immature as he has to grow into his big frame, so could be anything.
He was stretching away effortlessly under Ryan Munger at the business end and Munger said afterwards, “This fella has all the attributes to be a top horse.”
Esteemed is certainly an exciting prospect and many a racing purist will be looking forward to seeing him in action again on Saturday.