First Runner A Winner For Summerhill’s Traffic Guard
Summerhill Stud’s exciting stallion Traffic Guard came out of the blocks flying when he broke the ice with his first raced runner at Greyville on Sunday. The Kom Naidoo-trained Sovereign Magic built on her three placed efforts with a courageous performance to win the Maiden Juvenile Plate run over 1000m on the polytrack.
The winner easily accounted for the much hyped Var debutante Beau Var, who could do no better than finish third on debut.
The victory was also a memorable first for Sovereign Magic’s thrilled owner, Shamm Ganase, who had gone to just R40 000 to acquire her on the 2015 CTS Johannesburg Ready To Run Sale.
From Traffic Guard’s first crop, Sovereign Magic was bred by Messrs Thorpe and Zeeman, and is out of the three-time winning Silvano mare, Sovereign Lass.
The cross looks an exciting one as her well-bred dam won up to 2000m and there has been plenty of talk and anticipation about the prospects of her high quality miler sire, a son of More Than Ready.
Traffic Guard was unbeaten at two over 1200m and celebrated his own best track effort in the Gr1 Irish Champion Stakes, where he ran the world’s best three-year-old of the time, New Approach, to a half length at level weights.
His sire More Than Ready is one of the world’s leading dual hemisphere stallions and boasts impressive achievements, including twice Champion Juvenile Sire of Australia, and sire of two winners of the world’s richest Juvenile race, the Golden Slipper, as well as Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Champions, Pluck and More Than Real.
He is also the sire of Australian sensation, Sebring, as well as Varsfontein-based Gimmethegreenlight, one of the few horses to beat our champion miler Variety Club.
Traffic Guard is More Than Ready’s second highest-rated Northern Hemisphere-bred son of all time, with a Timeform rating of 123lbs. He was a winner of five races in UK and Dubai from 1200m to 2300m.
Traffic Guard is out of the Zafonic mare, Street Scene, a sister to Gr1 South African Derby hero, Chief Advocate and from the family of Gr1 Durban July winner Occult, leading sire Le Cordonnier, and Gr1 winner Erin’s Isle, amongst others.
Traffic Guard stood for a R12 500 fee in 2015 at Summerhill.
The handsome and athletic racer has five fillies and two colts on Tuesday’s Summer Ready To Run Sale at Summerhill Stud.
– extract sportingpost.co.za
