The Gulf Racing Club registered its first win from the South African office. SPRING PALACE pulled off a smart win in a Maiden Juvenile Plate over 1400m at Hollywoodbets Durbanville. SPRING PALACE had put up good work at home prior to his debut, only to put in a “too bad to be true” effort when well beaten. He was gelded shortly thereafter and did not waste anytime in making amends, pulling off a front running win at second time of asking. SPRING PALACE was purchased for the Gulf Racing Club at the inaugural Cape Racing Sales Ready To Run Sale. The Potala Palace colt presented very well and put up a solid “breeze”. Hailing from a great female line, the GRC team had to stretch to R400 000 to secure him, under the bidding of syndicate manager Kurt Felix. Felix had this to say after the win, “I am very happy for our group of owners. We were a bit worried first time out, but he vindicated the stable reports at his next start. Unfortunately due to the weather on the day, plus a few of the owners being in Dubai at the World Cup, nobody was oncourse to lead him in, hopefully there are many more wins in the tank for the owners to be on course. I want to thank Justin Vermaak, the CRS RTR sale was the first auction that the GRC was active at and I asked him to assist with some selection as I wanted to be as accurate as possible with the first buy for GRC in Cape Town. This is the colt he picked out to have a strong go for which we did, having to stretch to R400 000. I then got on the phone to clients and wrapped the horse up within a few hours of purchase, which eased the nerves. Thanks to Grant Cornwall and Geoff Thompson who jumped in immediately, I have known them a long time and having their support is great. Dave Musikanth, Andre Fouche and Lance Evered Hall are great guys who have raced with the GRC in Dubai and Australia and have been fantastic supporters, without the owners we wont be able to achieve our targets as an international racing group. We are so excited with what is happening at Cape Racing and I am looking forward to trying to establish a syndicate in the region that is represented by as many horses as possible. Would 50 be over optimistic? Why not, we going to give it a real bash.”
SPRING PALACE qualifies for the CRS Ready To Run Cup as a 3yo which is particularly promising, but he carried the added bonus of being a BSA KZN Sales graduate as well, earning the owners the BSA R100 000 bonus as well as being legible for the multiple BSA sales races on offer.
