Ridgemont Highlands’ red hot sire Rafeef came up with his third first-crop graded stakes winner when his son Master Archie won the G3 World Sports Betting Man O’War Sprint (1100m) at Turffontein on Saturday.
The 2022 Man O’War Sprint was a great result for Rafeef, with the former G1 Computaform Sprint winner not only responsible for the winner but also for runner-up Cleaver Greene.
The speedy Mufasa, stablemate to the eventual winner, was quick into stride and went out to make the running in Saturday’s sprint for three-year-olds.
However, that gelded son of What A Winter was swallowed up a long way from home as Master Archie, under Gavin Lerena, stormed into the lead.
The Paul Peter trained grey showed plenty of heart in fending off a challenge from fellow Rafeef son Cleaver Greene with Master Archie going on to land his first graded win by a neck. It was a tremendous win from Master Archie, who was conceding the runner-up no less than 8kgs, and finished three lengths clear of the third home, dual G3 winning filly, Sound Of Warning.
Bred and owned by Messrs Harry and Hanna (Adam Azzie also features as a part-breeder), Master Archie has now won six of just ten starts.
The gelding is out of the Var mare La Volta, whose eight wins included a strike in the Listed Bauhinia Handicap.
Master Archie joins Aragosta and William Robertson as graded stakes winners to have emerged from the first crop of his Redoute’s Choice sire Rafeef.
The latter, South Africa’s Leading First Season Sire of 2020-2021, has now been responsible for a total of five black-type horses in his first crop to date.
Currently, South Africa’s Leading Second Season Sire of 2021-2022, Rafeef has an outstanding draft on offer at the 2022 National Yearling Sale, with his draft headed by a filly (Lot 71) out of G3 Magnolia Handicap winner My Friend Lee, a half-brother (Lot 422) to this season’s top-class filly Big Burn, and a half-sister (Lot 432) to G1 Jonsson Workwear Garden Province Stakes winner Temple Grafin.
