Kalahari King posted an eye-catching debut win in a Maiden Juvenile Plate over 1200m and while there was some post-race banter between trainer Justin Snaith and part-owner Bjorn Nielsen, it was clear from their interviews that they expect this one to go places.
Kalahari King is a strong, well-built two-year-old by Vercingetorix out of Nielsen’s Listed-winning Captain Al mare, Really Royal, and Greg and Gina Bortz are partners in this chestnut describes as having “lots of a ability and attitude” by winning jockey Aldo Domeyer.
Kalahari King won by 1.25-lengths from another decent-looking newcomer Aquae Calidae – one you can have a good few ZAR on next time – and Domeyer added: “He has natural ability and did everything the righty way. I just gave him some soft persuasion and he glided up to the leaders. I think the owners can be very excited.”
Snaith said that Kalahari King had gone just a bit shin sore due to the firm grass track at Phillipi and that his debut was delayed, but that he’d recently trained well on the sand track and that he’d managed to take some weight off the sturdy colt. “This is a nice start to his career. He was underdone, but in the right way. He’s a beautiful individual.”
Snaith said that he was hoping Kalahari King would be the best chestnut Nielsen will ever own – a cheeky comparison to Nielsen’s former star stayer, Stradivarius. Nielsen admitted that his own expectations were high, but added that Snaith only trains a winner for him, “every pancake Tuesday”.
Nielsen paid a compliment to Tarryn Liebenberg, who pre-trained Kalahari King at Drakenstein Stud and suggested that horses like Kalahari King provided even more motivation to spend nine months a year away from his UK base, in South Africa.
“He was a beautiful foal and yearling,” Nielsen enthused.
Photo by Wayne Marks.
