Gimme A Prince gets up after a strong finish from off the pace, despite carrying topweight under leading jockey Keagan de Melo (Pciture: Chase Liebenberg).
Outsiders to racing must wonder why people spend big money buying horses, because there are a plethora of stories about cheap buys who became champions and a plethora of stories about mega-million buys who could not get out of their own way.
Big money well spent just does not make as good a story, so whilst the horse might make the headlines the money spent is hidden somewhere near the end of the article, hence the false impression that big money is unlikely to prove worth it.
Gimme A Prince is an example of a big money buy paying handsome dividends.
His mother, the Klawervlei Stud-bred Real Princess (Trippi), was the highest priced filly at the Cape Premier Yearling Sale of 2013, fetching R2,7 million.
She was out of Pagan Princess, who was one of Klawervlei’s best boodmares. Pagan Princess was only a one-time winner, but she was by champion stallion Fort Wood and was a half-sister to the Al Mufti superstar Victory Moon. Pagan Princess lived up to her superb pedigree by producing the goods at stud.
Real Princess was the first foal of Pagan Princess and won the Gr 1 SA Fillies Sprint for Dean Kannemeyer and Lady Christine Laidlaw of Khaya Stables.
Pagan Princess also produced Gr 1 Cape Guineas winner William Longsword (Captain Al), who is a successful sire at Klawervlei today, as well as two other stakes winners, Silver God and Really Royal.
Lady Laidlaw has now bred with Real Princess and her first foal, the Kannemeyer-trained Gimmethegreenlight colt Gimme A Prince, might have wrapped up the Equus Champion Sprinter award on Saturday by winning the Gr 1 Golden Horse Sprint over 1200m.
He races in Lady Laidlaw’s Khaya Stables’ familiar yellow and black silks.
It was his second Gr 1 sprint win of the season and he did it carrying topweight, which makes it at least as good a performance as his win in the Gr 1 weight for age Pongracz Cape Flying Championship over 1000m at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth on WSB Met day.
Keagan de Melo sat at the back on Gimme A Prince from an outside draw on Saturday. Switching to the outside he still had a lot to do, but turned it on impressively and took the lead close to home to win cosily by 0,90 lengths from the dueling pair Thunderstruck and Surjay. Bartholdi didn’t have a perfectly clear passage but ran on well for a 1,65 length fourth with local hope Pearl Of Asia finishing strongly for fifth.
The four-year-old gelding is the first horse to carry topweight to victory in this race since Talktothestars in 2016. It is also a feat he shares with the legendary J J The Jet Plane, although J J did it as a three-year-old.
Gimme A Prince has only had nine career starts for six wins and two seconds.
He finished second in the Gr 2 IOS Drill Hall Stakes over 1400m in his previous start and it will be interesting to see if he will be tried over a mile next season. His mother won twice over 1400m, but failed at the highest level over a mile on two occasions, in the Gr 2 KRA Fillies Guineas and the Gr 1 Majorca Stakes.
However, this season Gimme A Prince likely has just one more goal, and that is to win the Gr 1 wfa Mercury Sprint over 1200m. He will face another contender for Equus Champion Sprinter there, the Peter Muscutt-trained Isivunguvungu, and perhaps also a third Equus Champion Sprinter contender in Princess Calla.
