Eight on Eighteen at the Hollywoodbets Durban July gallops (Candiese Lenferna Photography)
The term “bargain buy” usually refers to cheap horses who make it, but should really refer to the ones that yield the biggest percentage returns and head and shoulders the leader in that regard this season is the Justin Snaith-trained Drakenstein Stud-bred Lancaster Bomber colt Eight On Eighteen.
The Nick Jonsson and Johann Rupert-owned colt was comfortably the leading earner this season on R6,556,875, well clear of the Alec Laird-trained Atticus Finch on R3,631,250 , the Dean Kanemeyer-trained The Real Prince on R3,539,844, the Vaughan Marshall-trained One Stripe on R3,291,325 and the Stuart Ferrie-trained Gladatorian on R1,994,838.
Eight On Eighteen is probably worth tens of millions considering his stud value, so the R700,000 he was purchased for at the BSA Nationals looks a tuppence now.
His late sire Lancaster Bomber only ever produced two crops and illustrating what a loss he was is that he finished in fourth place on the national log, despite having only had 115 runners.
Lancaster Bomber has to date had eleven stakes winners, including five Gr 1 winners.
His Hollywoodbets Cape Guineas winner Snow Pilot has stallion potential, but is not quite as exciting a stallion prospect as the three-time Gr 1-winning Eight On Eighteen.
Of the other highest earning racehorses of the season One Stripe could have challenged Eight On Eighteen as leading earner if he had not departed for overseas and this One World colt also has exciting stallion potential.
It should be noted that One Stripe was the most expensive horse at his Sale, the Cape Racing Sales Ready To Run And Unbroken Two-year-old Sale, where he fetched R1.4 million. He has also proved to be a bargain buy.
