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
