BINT EL MALAK from the Paul Lafferty stable has been the epitome of this in the competition thus far. The filly sits 15 points clear of her nearest rival, with 2 wins and 2 second place finishes from her four runs. 

Paul Lafferty’s Summerveld yard are going all out to hang on to their lead in the Hollywoodbets Sizzling Summer Challenge.

Every race in KZN from the beginning of December until the end of February counts towards the competition. The points gathered for each race, whether a Grade 1 or a maiden, is dependent on the number of horses in the field and the finishing position. If there are ten runners in a race the winner will get ten points, the runner up nine points and so on all the way down to the tenth placed finisher who will get one point. If there are seven runners in the race then the winner gets seven points, the runner up six etc. The points are awarded to the relevant trainer, jockey and horse.

At the end of the competition the top six trainers, jockeys and horses will split respective prize money of R250,000 apiece. 

The top trainer, jockey and horse will each receive R100,000.

Lafferty led the trainers table after the last Scottsville meeting with 447 points.

The yard is on an upward curve and, for Hollywoodbets Sizzling Summer Competition purposes, the Lafferty horses are coming well at the right time.

The Lafferty-trained Bint El Malak won for the second time in four runs during the challenge and she leads the horse table on 55 points, 15 clear of her stablemate Explosive Beauty.

She is a King’s Chapel full sister to Malak El Moolook, now racing in Mauritius and a horse who placed in the Gr3 Graham Beck and Gr2 Gauteng Guineas in the care of Sean Tarry. Bred by Bush Hill Stud, their dam Lee Danzig has produced 5 winners to date, and she enjoyed tremendous success with matings to King Of Kings – who in turn is also the sire of the now retired King’s Chapel.

Kom Naidoo has a 2yo filly half-sister to Bint El Malak, named Magicallee (Willow Magic) who finished gamely by a whisker, 2nd on debut recently.

View the full leaderboard at the following LINK.

-excerpt Hollywoodbets and Gold Circle

Raised at Cathy and Jonathan Martin’s Hadlow Stud in Mooi River for St John’s Graystone Stud, the chestnut is out of Jet Master mare Bennie And the Jets. Ronnie’s Candy has a Mogok half-sister (2yo) who has just entered pretraining, and her dam has a yearling by Bezrin.

Cathy reports that unfortunately Bennie and the Jets didn’t have a foal this year, but she is in foal to Potala Palace for the 2020 season.

Ronnies Candy is a nominee at the KZN Breeders upcoming annual Awards, where she is in the category for Champion 3YO Filly and Champion Middle Distance Filly.

Her Race Record is 4 wins and 7 places – including the Gr2 SA Fillies Nursery where she beat Celtic Sea, the Gr3 Starling Stakes where she again beat Celtic Sea and Running Brave, a win at the Vaal before her Gr2 yesterday.

She has also placed in three other Graded Stakes races and has earned R842,775 in stakes.

Congratulations to all concerned!

In other KZN related news, young Klawervlei sire Captain Of All is making a name for himself.

The Gr1 winning son of Captain Al looks to be taking the baton from his champion sire. He is out of a #kznbred Fard mare Serious Side, who was bred by Robert Smith. His son Shango won the Gr2 Dingaans yesterday for trainer Sean Tarry. Captain Of All was the leading juvenile sire this past season by Stakes Earned.

KZN is having a great season with two Gr1 winners amongst our Stakes Winners this season, and three of our #kznbreds walked away with Awards – including two out of three Triple Tiara winner, Takingthepeace.

Owner, trainer and breeder St John Gray was rewarded for his smart Gr2 SA Fillies Nursery winner, Ronnie’s Candy by King Of Kings, won Champion 2YO Filly, whilst Takingthepeace took the Award for Champion 3YO Filly.

The daughter of Visionaire was bred by Summerhill Stud and has recently been bought into by the Kieswetter’s of Highlands, Part Of Ridgemont. The Sporting Post reported an updated on Takingthepeace from Mathew De Kock.

“Everybody wants to know what is happening to near SA Triple Tiara heroine, Takingthepeace, who was scratched from the July.

“She’s currently having a well deserved rest and Highlands-Ridgemont’s Ross and Craig Kieswetter have bought in and will race her with Murray Makepeace and Michael Shea. It is great to have more young dynamic owners in the yard. She will also be a top-class addition to the powerful Highlands broodmare ranks one day,” said Mathew.

It was a Gr1 double for Summerhill Stud, who also boast that they sold three Gr1 winners off the 2016 CTS Ready To Run Sale – Brave Mary (bred by Rupert Plersch), Hero’s Honour and Takingthepeace, but it was Hero’s Honour that took the Award for Champion Stayer last night, after winning the Gr1 SA Derby.

Another horse to be mentioned is Attenborough, who was bred in partnership by Pippa Mickelburgh and KZN Breeders Ian Todd and Keith Russon. He won the award for Champion Sprinter.

Both Ronnie’s Candy and Attenborough will be racing at Gold Circle’s Speed Festival on Saturday at Scottsville, sponsored by Tsogo Sun.

Congratulations to the winning breeders and connections on an outstanding result!

Images: JC Photos

The Kenilworth meeting today saw the first race being won by a three year old son of Mogok out of a full-sister to Jet Master, whilst King Of Kings had success as the broodmare sire of the Southeaster Listed winner Captain Alfredo, with Scott Bros’ son of Overlord – Talktothestars, finishing less than a length off in third position over the 1100m.

Talktothestars (pictured right at Scottsville) carried 2kgs more than the winner, jumping from a fourth draw. Ridden by Craig Zackey and owned and trained by Mr FC De Beer, Talktothestars finished just three lengths off Triptique in his last outing, the Gr2 Cape Merchants.
The son of Overlord was unsold at the National Two Year Old sales, and has gone on to win seven races – in his last three starts he has defeated a number of top horses in quality fields. He has won almost R450 000 in stakes to date.

The Mogok gelding named Astrapi, bred by Chris Saunders, kicked off the day with his first win for trainer Ri Van Reenen and has placed six times previously from eights starts for his owners Mr Greg & Mrs Vida Holtman, Mr F J Louw & Mrs C S Swart, Mr A & Mrs L J Schipper & Mr N M Shirtliff.

His dam, Withstand The Wind – who bears a powerful resemblance in looks and size to her Champion sire full brother, is now owned by Clifton Stud.

The mare has a 2014 Var filly named Vallee Du Var coming through and she has returned to Clifton Stud this season currently in foal to Wilgebosdrift’s new sire of the season, Flower Alley.

Mogok, the sire of four Gr1 winners – two of them top international racehorses with the likes of Gypsy’s Warning and The Apache – is currently lying in 9th position on the National Sires Log, with Jay Peg and Var following behind him.

The late King Of Kings’ with his impeccable pedigree looks to have a great future as a broodmare sire, where he has already produced several Group Winners in Europe, America and Australia and Japan, more recently on the local front with Gr3 winner Royal Pleasure.

He stood at The Fort Stud prior to his death earlier in 2015 at the age of 21.

Jill specialises in pretraining of horses, and provides the service of spelling, sales preparation and boarding of mares.

Jill has foals by Silvano, Black Minnaloushe, Noble Tune, Toreador, Mogok and former resident sire King Of Kings.