‘This is what good horses do’

Rafeef’s two-year-old son, Esteemed, was expected to be green on his Turffontein debut, but he turned the 1160m contest into a walk in the park with an impressive and professional 4.50-length success. “This is what good horses do!” enthused jockey Ryan Munger, who was perhaps greener than his mount as he looked at the big screen over the last 50m.

Jokes aside, Ryan will be monitoring the progress of this smart colt when he returns to Canada after Champions Day, where Richard Fourie has been booked to ride Esteemed in the SA Nursery for his contracted owners, Ridgemont Stud.

Ryan said: “What a classy individual this is. It was like he’s done it a million times. He has everything about him, all the attributes to be a top horse. He did everything right. I shook his reins at the 300m mark, gave him one smack and it was race over. He cruised in!”

Mike de Kock was suitably impressed too. “Esteemed was a bit green coming into the ring, ducking and looking around. But he has a good mind, this horse. He is laid back at home and delivered what he had shown in work.”

Mike said that he and Mathew were privileged to be training several nice young horses for Ridgemont. Hollywoodbets’ Devin Heffer also owns a share in Esteemed, and he will be looking forward to the Nursery. “We’ll leave him in for next week, we’ll see how he pulls up,” said Mike.