Tag: Crown Towers

Coolmore Stud’s four time G1 winning stallion Camelot tasted graded stakes success in South Africa on Saturday, when his courageous five-year-old son Crown Towers made all to win the G3 Hollywoodbets Dolphins Cup Trial (1800m) at Hollywoodbets Greyville.

Winner of the Listed World Sports Betting Sledgehammer two starts back, the Justin Snaith trained Crown Towers was a well backed chance to win Saturday’s R150 000 contest, with the Cup Trial offering potential Vodacom Durban July hopefuls a chance to ensure a place in the final July field.

Fourth in the G2 World Sports Betting 1900 last time out, Crown Towers received a superb, front running ride from jockey Richard Fourie.

Fourie lost no time in take the front runner to the lead, and Crown Towers kept going gallantly from the front.

Despite facing a wall of challenges late on, Crown Towers showed tremendous courage in staying on to score by a neck.

Former G3 Byerley Turk winner Tristful caught the eye back in second place, with Crown Towers’ stablemate Nexus taking third spot, just over half a length off the winner.

Now an eight time winner from 21 starts (the gelding has banked R581 250 in stakes), Crown Towers won his first graded race on Saturday in a time of 110.36 seconds.

The Australian bred gelding, who was bred by Mr Bibbo, is one of 37 stakes winners for Camelot, the sire of recent beaten Cazoo Oaks favourite Santa Barbara among others. Sold through the 2017 Inglis Premier Yearling Sale to Heywood Bloodstock and Mayfair Speculators for $280,000, Crown Towers joins G1 winner Run Fox Run as a graduate of the famed Australian farm Mill Park Stud.

Crown Towers, closely inbred to legendary stallion Sadler’s Wells, is out of the five time winning Galileo mare Miss With Attitude, who was third in the G2 Bill Stutt Stakes.

Copy: TSA News, Racing Images supplied by Candiese Lenferna Photography

Trainer Justin Snaith struck feature race success on Sunday, when his Camelot gelding Crown Towers (5-1) made all to win the Listed World Sports Betting Sledgehammer (1750m) at Hollywoodbets Scottsville.

Smart three-year-old Rascallion (8-15) had finished second in the G1 Jonsson Workwear Cape Derby last time out and the recently gelded sophomore was favoured to win Sunday’s R100 000 feature.

However the Vaughan Marshall gelding came up empty in the closing stages, with Rascallion having to settle for fourth spot.

In contrast, the Australian bred Crown Towers went to the front, under a typically well judged from Richard Fourie, and despite looking beaten close to home, the joint top weight fought back to win Sunday’s race by just under half a length. Black Knap (30-1), a stablemate to the beaten favourite, caught the eye with a bold showing back in second spot, and finished more than two and a half lengths clear of the third home, Shavout (40-1), with Rascallion finishing more than three lengths off the winner.

Now a seven time winner from 19 starts (his early wins include both the Listed Michaelmas Handicap and Listed Jet Master Stakes of 2020), Crown Towers claimed the 2021 Sledgehammer in a time of 106 seconds.

“He has really upped his game. He is our best locally-based horse. At the outset, he was a nightmare in starting stalls but Mike Shaw has done a great job with him. I’d love to see him out front setting the pace in the Durban July in a dream world,”said Justin.

The five-year-old gelding is a son of Coolmore’s four-time G1 winning Montjeu horse Camelot – whose son Nerium captured the G2 Carl Jaspers-Preis at Cologne on Sunday. Purchased from the draft of Mill Park Stud at the 2017 Inglis Premier Yearling Sale for $280,000 by Heywood Bloodstock and Mayfair Speculators, Snaith Racing then secured the majority of Crown Towners when purchasing 80% of him R1,7 million at the Central Route Trading Sale Durbanville Mixed Sale in July 2018.

Images supplied by: Candiese Lenferna Photography