Eight On Eighteen is pictured winning the Gr 1 Splashout Cape Derby (Picture: Wayne Marks)
Gaynor Rupert described Charles Dickens’ win of the L’Ormarins King’s Plate in 2024 as the best day of her racing career and not surprisingly, because a superstar colt that she had both bred and owned had just won the race which had come to be known by some as “Gaynor’s race”, due to the way she and her L’Ormrins team had transformed the L’Ormarins King’s Plate meeting from an ordinary Gr 1 race day into the Royal Ascot of South African racing.
The first big result for Gaynor in her own race was when Jet Dark won it in 2021, because she was bred by her stud farm, Drakenstein Stud.
Jet Dark then repeated the feat in 2022, before the Drakenstein Stud-homebred Charles Dickens powered home in 2024.
Fittingly, both Jet Dark and Charles Dickens are by Trippi, who is the force which has enabled Drakenstein to win three owners’ championships and two Breeders Championships in just over 20 years of being in operation.
Jet Dark and Charles Dickens are now both standing at Drakenstein and will hopefully continue the now retired Trippi’s legacy.
Drakenstein are breeders of three of the LKP runners on Saturday, Eight On Eighteen (Lancaster Bomber), See It Again (Twice Over) and Sail The Seas (Vercingetorix).
However, Eight On Eighteen will add yet another LKP accolade to Gaynor’s burgeoning achievements in the prestigious weight for age mile, because he is part-owned by her husband Johann and was in fact the first horse Johann ever owned.
Furthermore, Eight On Eighteen is by Lancaster Bomber, who has proved to be a big loss to Drakenstein Stud after his untimely passing.
Lancaster Bomber’s only two crops have done phenomenally well and among them are five Gr 1 winners.
Eight On Eighteen will be a worthy successor to Lancaster Bomber in the breeding shed. He is already a three-time Gr 1 winner and could join the greats if he progresses further, as expected, this season.
All three of the Drakenstein Stud-breds in the King’s Plate are trained by Justin Snaith.
Eight On Eighteen comes in fresh, having not run since his narrow second in the Gr 1 Hollywoodbets Durban July.
He would prefer further, but was second to last year’s King’s Plate winner, One Stripe, in the Hollywoodbets Cape Guineas, so he is definitely effective over a mile.
He jumps from draw seven and British Champion Jockey Oisin Murphy rides.
Johann Rupert owns Eight On Eighteen together with Nick Jonsson, who also owns See It Again.
