One Stripe is led in after winning the L’Ormarins King’s Plate. (Picture: Wayne Marks).
Durban-based owner Rikesh Sewgoolam revealed that his superstar three-year-old One World colt One Stripe had never had the L’Ormarins King’s Plate on his agenda and it was a recommendation by jockey Gavin Lerena that sparked the decision to have a go.
The Drakenstein Stud-bred colt gave all of Sewgoolam, trainer Vaughan Marshall and Lerena their respective first King’s Plate victories.
Rikesh said, “We were guided by Gavin and I was guided by Vaughan as well. Gavin had felt that, despite the margin, the horse had won the Guineas with a ton in hand. He took his run in the Guineas pretty well too. So we decided to have a go, even though everything was not in his favour. But, it worked out in the end.”
One Stripe became just the third three-year-old in the last 50 years to have won the King’s Plate.
When Yataghan did it in 1973 he was the third three-year-old in the space of four years to have done it, following Chichester in 1970 and In Full Flight in 1972. However, the conditions back then appeared to be different because despite the race then being run a month and-a-half later in mid February, In Full Flight and Yataghan both received 7kg from the topweighted older males, while Chichester, when the race was run on New Year’s Day, received 7,5kg from the topweighted older male.
One Stripe only received 5kg on Saturday in the race which is today run under weight for age conditions and joined Gimmethegreenlight (2012) and Jet Dark as the only three-year-olds to have won it since Yataghan did it in 1973.
Rikesh prefers to watch his horses racing from home.
He admitted to being nervous before every race and to being pessimistic about the 11/10 favourite’s chances when he turned for home with a lot of ground to make up on the leaders.
He said, “Gavin’s plan was to race him forward this time and probably sit third or fourth, considering he had a goodish draw of five, but things never worked out from the jump. Unfortunately, for the first time he missed the break and all the plans fell out the window. He had to do it the hard way and turning for home I really didn’t believe he would be able to get to them, especially when he went past the 400m mark and had so many horses in front of him and with that horse of Piet Botha’s (Montien) going so well and Gimme A Prince travelling so well on the inside rail.”
Out on the track the jockey had a completely different perspective.
Riskesh revealed, “Gavin was full of confidence. When I chatted to him on Saturday night he said he turned into the straight and balanced him and he knew at the 500m mark he was going to win. It was just a matter of getting a clear passage, he could feel there was so much there. But unfortunately with us watching on television it looked totally different!”
Lerena rode with the hands all the way to the 200m mark and then when giving him a slap with the whip, One Stripe took off. He burst through between Montien and Gimme A Prince to win by a cosy 1,75 lengths.
Rikesh said, “He was so brave, he took that gap … for a young horse to take that gap. It was pretty tight when you look at the head on, tighter than what it looked like from the side on.”
Riskesh explained how he came about owning One Stripe.
He said, “Grant Knowles actually bought him initially I think on the August BSA Sale for R100,000 and he then sent him to Soetendal estate to pre-train him for the Ready To Run Sale. He was already entered and like I do most years I prefer buying horses from the Ready To Run Sale bceause it just gives you an additional angle in terms of knowing what you are buying. I looked at the catalogue for this October 2023 sale and for some reason, I can’t really tell you what the reason was, two horses stood out for me and he was one of them.I do keep my horses at Soetendal anyway, my mares are there, so prior to the sale I chatted to Julia Pilbeam. Funnily enough the other one I liked was also at Soetendal and she said both of them were very nice horses. I just liked his dam. Julia then told me One Stripe was owned by Grant Knowles and I have a very good relationship with Grant, so I phoned him and asked him ‘more or less what are you looking at?’. He then explained to me about the filly as well, which he also owned, and we managed to do a deal before the Sale, in fact I think it was a mere week before the Sale.”
One Stripe’s dam is called Silver Stripe, who is by Silvano out of a Badger’s Gift mare, and she won three times from 2200m to 2400m including the Listed Spook Express Handicap. She is a full-sister to Gr 3 Winter Derby winner Gifted For Glory.
Rikesh left One Stripe and the filly on the Sale in order to qualify for all the Ready To Run races and incentives etc.
Then immediately after the breeze up gallop Vaughan Marshall, who was going to be the trainer for One Stripe, phoned Rikesh.
Rikesh said, “He said to me ‘You can’t let this horse go, his gallop was probably the best breeze up I’ve ever seen.’ I agreed, without expecting to be challenged in the way we were. We thought he would probably go for around R400,000 or so!”
Rikesh had to go to R1,4 million to keep him and although the implications of that are a big commission pay out, not to mention a big lump sum he could have gained by letting him go, it was obviously well worth it in the long run to keep him. However, they let the filly go as the buy back had eaten into the planned Sale kitty.
Later Winterbach Stud put One Stripe’s dam up for Sale in foal to One World.
One Stripe had already made his debut by that stage, ironically on L’Ormarins King’s Plate day last year, where he finished a close up fifth in a strong field.
Knowles contacted Rikesh to make him aware of the mare being for sale.
Rikesh said by that stage the inner circle of himself, Vaughan Marshall and Bernard Fayd’Herbe knew that One Stripe had a lot of promise.
Rikesh revealed, “Bernard played a big role in One Stripe’s career. Virtually on day one after the horse got to Vaughan’s stable he rang me and said ‘This horse is special’. He said, ‘He is naughty but I can just feel when I’m sitting on him, and I sat on him for the first time yesterday and sat on him again today, I just feel that he oozes power.’”
“It is amazing how he felt it just by sitting on him on that day,” said Rikesh.
He continued, “So by then we knew he was pretty nice, but you just don’t know, a lot of them show a lot of promise early and then just don’t go on.”
However, Rikesh decided to buy the mare.
He said, “Her being in foal to One World made it more prudent for me to consider it.”
It has turned out to be an astute decision.
He is now looking forward to the career of the weanling full sister, not to mention the progeny of Silver Stripe to follow.
One Stripe’s next mission is the big Sales race, the R5 million Big Cap to be run over 1400m on March 16 at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth.
Rikesh also owns One Stripe’s half-brother, the Marshall-trained Erik The Red colt Vapour Trail.
This colt ran a 8,75 length fifth on debut over 1000m behind the fine Parental Guidance (Querari), who is a half-brother to Equus Champion colt Proceed.
Rikesh said, “Vaughan just wanted to give him an outing because he said he needs a lot further than 1000m. He is actually a nice horse, so he will probably try the 1200m next toward the end of February, but according to Vaughan he is looking for 1400m plus.”
Vapour Trail is one to keep an eye on.
