One Stripe Lands A First L’Ormarins King’s Plate For Marshall

An ecstatic Gavin Lerena salutes after One Stripe had produced a devastating late burst to take the L’Ormarins King’s Plate. (Pic – Wayne Marks).

Vaughan Marshall landed the Gr 1 L’Ormarins King’s Plate for the first time in his illustrious career ob Saturday at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth and did it with a son of One World, who ran second for him in this race just five years ago at long odds of 16/1 in a field that included the winner Vardy as well as the like of Rainbow Bridge Hawwaam, Do It Again, Soqrat and Undercover Agent.

His Drakenstein Stud-bred colt One Stripe silenced some pundits who had questioned the strength of this season’s sophomore crop as he burst through late under Gavin Lerena to win by a cosy 1,75 lengths from the 75/1 shot Montien, with Gimme A Prince and Royal Aussie next best ahead of the fancied Snow Pilot, and he thus became just the third three-year-old to have won it in the last 50 renewals.

The Sporting Post wrote the following report about the race:

Beaten by Vardy in the 2020 renewal, SA Champion Freshman Sire One World made good for master trainer Vaughan Marshall to give the Milnerton veteran his maiden success in the 164th renewal of the R3 million L’Ormarins Gr1 King’s Plate courtesy of his standout son One Stripe at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth on Saturday.

2025 L’Ormarins Gr1 King’s Plate champions – One Stripe and Gavin Lerena tick one off Vaughan Marshall’s bucket list (Pic – Candiese Lenferna)

The Sporting Post observed in the build up to the prestigious weight-for-age mile that history really was not on the side of the young guns, given that, prior to Saturday, there have been only ten sophomore winners since its inception in 1861, two of which, Gimethegreenlight and Jet Dark, arriving in the new millennium.

But the Vaughan Marshall Grade 1 bucket list was itching to tick this one off and the fairytale unfolded as the Hollywoodbets Cape Guineas winner burst his way between two senior athletes to also give owner Rikesh Sewgoolam and jockey Gavin Lerena their personal ‘blue and white’ firsts.

After Snow Pilot showed the way, having crossed from his awkward 13 draw, to lead Montien and Oriental Charm early, the race changed complexion into the home run as Craig Zackey aggressively slipped Gr1 winning sprinter Gimme A Prince (14-1) down the inside rail in what looked a potential match winning move.

But Piet Botha’s longshot Montien (75-1) wasn’t going away and the two locked horns, with One Stripe making ground further back.

Inside the final 200m, Lerena slipped the champion 3yo through and the popular 11-10 favourite showed his class as he drew away to beat the gutsy Montien by 1,75 lengths in a time of 97,63 secs for the mile.

Gimme A Prince just tired late, but was not disgraced in third, ahead of Royal Aussie (25-2) and Oisin Murphy in fourth.

The remarkable One Stripe took his stakes bank to R4 161 763 with his sixth win and a place from eight starts.

The R1,4 million sales-topper at the 2023 Cape Racing Ready To Run And Unbroken Two Year Old Sale, One Stripe was bred by Drakenstein and is out of the three-time winning Silvano mare Silver Stripe, who stayed well and won up to 2450m.

On a memorable day for the Marshall team, they also celebrated a Grade 2 success when Rascallion won a thriller in the Anthonij Rupert Wyne Premier Trophy, earlier.