Three Anchor Bay pictured before last year’s BSA August Two-year-old Sale (BSA). 

It is interesting to note that the half-brother to Hollywoodbets Durban July winner Winchester Mansion went for just R75,000 at the last BSA August Two-year-old sale, despite being by July-producing sire Twice Over.

It is little surprise to learn that this colt, who was knocked down to John Freeman, is trained by Justin Snaith and owned by Nick Jonsson.

Jonsson has had incredible success with Twice Over.

The British-bred sire by Observatory has brought him three Gr 1 winners, the Snaith-trained legend Do It Again, the Snaith-trained Cape Guineas winner Double Superlative and the Michael Roberts-trained dual Gr 1 winner See It Again.

Jonsson and partners Bernard Kantor and the late Jack Mitchell had to splash out R1.1 million to secure Do It Again.

Therefore, Three Anchor Bay has the potential to be a bargain buy.

However, Jonsson is steeped in racing and commenting on the purchase price said,  “Well let’s hope he can run! If not then it’s expensive!!”

Jonathan Snaith said about Three Anchor Bay, who has already been gelded, “He is quite backward and is taking time. He is a big colt and just needs a lot of patience.”

Strangely enough, considering Twice Over is viewed as a stamina influential sire, Three Anchor Bay is a full-brother to the Gr 1-winning sprinter Sand And Sea, who won the Gold Medallion. 

Justin Snaith’s second of five July winners, Legislate, was probably the bargain of the century and John Freeman was also involved in that purchase.

Justin recalled recently, “We and John Freeman liked Legislate at the National Yearling Sales but thought he would go for too much. John and I were sitting around when he was in the ring and nobody was interested. So we put up our hand at R90,000 and got him.”

The official purchase price of R100,000 was just to make up the reserve.

Snaith continued, “We went straight to Vaughan Koster after the bidding and asked him if there was something wrong with him that we had missed. He replied ‘no he is a cracker’. He could not believe the price either.”  

The Dynasty colt reeled off victories in 2014 in the Gr 1 Cape Derby, the Gr 2 KRA Guineas, the Gr 1 Daily News 2000 and the Gr 1 Durban July which saw him being named Equus Horse Of The Year.

He has unfortunately had fertility issues considering from 37 foal and 33 runners he has produced no fewer than 8 stakes winners, which is a phenomenal 24% stakes winners to runners.