Richard Fourie drives Cats Pajamas home as One Eye On Vegas (Sean Veale) tries hard (Pic – JC Photos)
Sporting Post
The Nathan Kotzen-trained Cats Pajamas made it two Champions Day feature victories for Summerveld-based gallopers when the son of Rafeef finished strongly to win the R500 000 TAB Gr2 Hawaii Stakes.
Richard Fourie drives Cats Pajamas home as One Eye On Vegas (Sean Veale) tries hard (Pic – JC Photos)
Ironically a false start played into the hands of Cats Pajamas, who lived up to his name and fell asleep in the gates and then stumbled.
“Some of them took a while to load. So he relaxed. The false start was a blessing in the end. I had him right up there and he was cantering at the 400m. He stayed on well,” added Fourie, who seems to have benefitted from his recent overseas holiday and is back to his brilliant best.
Just as the smart 3yo One Eye On Vegas (7-10) was weaving his way through from last and looking a serious threat, Cats Pajamas (25-2) kicked away and stayed on to beat the De Kock sophomore by 2,10 lengths in a time of 84,85 secs for the 1400m.
Pacemaker Money Heist (16-1) ran a cracker to stay on for third, with defending champion Main Defender (33-10) capping the quartet, 4,75 lengths off the winner.
Bred by Wilgerbosdrift and Mauritzfontein, the winner is raced by leading KZN owner Sid Moodley and is a son of Rafeef (Redoute’s Choice) out of the well-performed six-time winning Var mare, Sea Cat.
Selected by his former trainer Frank Robinson at the 2023 BSA National Yearling Sale, where he was bought for R600 000, Cats Pajamas took his career earnings to R1 156 050 on Saturday, with his sixth victory, including seven places, from 19 starts.
