One Stripe powers home in the increasingly familiar Rikesh Sewgoolam colours (Pitucre: Wayne Marks)
Cape Racing’s lucrative new Festival Sales race day to be held in the middle of March was great news for Rikesh Sewgoolam, who is the owner of the probable most exciting three-year-old colt in the land, the Vaughan Marshall-trained One Stripe.
Rikesh said, “I checked with Justin Vermaak and he does qualify for the R5 million race, because he came out of last year’s Cape Racing Sales Ready To Run Sale, so it is very exciting.”
What makes it particularly exciting is that a top three-year-old can now feasibly have a tilt at the WSB Met on top of the three-year-old Gr 1 classics and the big Sales races, presuming the Gr 1 Hollywoodbets Cape Guineas and Gr 1 Splashout Cape Derby keep their slots in December and February respectively and the WSB Met keeps its slot in late January. The big Sales races were previously run on Met day and have now been moved to March.
The Gr 3 Schweppes Politician Stakes will still presumably be available on Met day for those three-year-olds who want to avoid the Met, but who will need a preparation outing for the Derby.
One Stripe is by Met winner One World out of the Silvano mare Silver Stripe, whose three wins included two wins over 2450m, including in a Listed event.
The fact One Stripe has such stamina in his pedigree and yet showed precocious speed as a two-year-old, including doing a Gr 3 double over 1200m and 1100m respectively, makes him a particularly exciting prospect.
Riskesh said, “We’ll see how things pan out. I will leave it to Vaughan though.”
He did divulge that One Stripe had been doing “very well” and added, “He galloped this morning. He’ll gallop at Hollywoodbets Durbanville on that open day on the 19th and Vaughan’s got him targeting the 12th of October to make his return. His big target is the Cape Guineas and we haven’t planned beyond that.”
There are two Progress Plates for three-year-old at the Durbanville meeting on October 12 and One Stripe will likely go for the 1400m one, considering the Cape Guineas is the race he is being aimed at.
One Stripe is not the only One World Rikesh has.
In fact he has a share in One World.
He said he had not been at all surprised by One World’s phenomenal success to date (he smashed the Freshman record of his sire Captain Al, increasing it from 22 individual winners to 30 and the latter figure equalled Captain Al’s overall two-year-old record in a season and the 40 races they won was also equal to Captain Al’s record figure).
Rikesh said him being by Captain Al was one of the attractions and he added, “His form was just phenomenal and I’m quite close with some of the jockeys that rode him and they said from a heart perspective he was just phenomenal, he never gave up, and that is what you’re looking for in a stallion.”
Rikesh said owing a share in him compelled him to support him, so he will be sending all of his own mares to One World.
He has bought One Worlds at the sales too.
His buying at the sales has mainly been through a partnership he has formed with Laurence Wernars and Mukund Gujadhur and he said the horses they have bought have predominantly been One Worlds.
The horses they have bought together will go to various trainers, including Vaughan Marshall and Johan Janse van Vuuren.
Riskesh actually owns the half-brother to One Stripe, who is by Erik The Red and he has gone into training with Vaughan.
The partnership with himself, Wernars and Gujadhur also bought a horse in training, the top prospect The Specialist (The United States), who was formerly trained by MJ Odendaal.
They bought a share in him before HKJC Gold Cup day, where he was still trained by Odendaal and ran an unlucky 0,70 second in the Gr 1 World Pool Moment Of The Day Champion Stakes.
The original owners LM Michael and DJ Michael still own shares in him and he has been moved to the Sean Tarry yard.
The Specialist makes his debut for Tarry on Saturday, September 7, in a Graduation Plate over 1200m.
Of his other good horses in training Rikesh owns the classy sprinter Time Fo Orchids, who is being freshened up by Janse van Vuuren and will be coming out in the spring.
His favourite horse, the Marshall-trained Seeking The Stars (Vercingetorix), is now a seven-year-old and has been out for a year with injury. However, he was gelded in March and is two or three weeks away from a comeback.
