With the Christmas festivities finished the first Saturday of the year is a great date to put in the diary at ‘Hollywood Bets Kenilworth’. Hosted at the wonderful Cape Town track has never been so attractive with the stylish ‘L’Ormarins Kings Plate racing festival a joy to behold. The track has had a remarkable facelift with backing from entrepreneur Mr Greg Bortz and Hollywood Bets supremo Owen Heffer.
The 2025 renewal had the added boost of one of the finest jockeys in the world Oisin Murphy riding in 6 races on the card.
The feature Race on one of South Africa’s most stylish sporting occasions was the L’Ormarins Kings Plate in which One Stripe went off at very short odds .
The Vaughan Marshall trained 3yo carried huge expectations with former champion jockey Gavin Lerena in the saddle. Lerena is currently back to his brilliant best and was uber confident about the colts ability and class.
Snow Pilot and Montein cut out the early fastest early and mid division fractions with One Stripe sitting mid division and happy to take a lead. Lerena gradually let the favourite loose and the superstar colt covered the final 600m in 11.27 ,11.12,11.86 and a final time of 1.37.63 which was faster than the previous two runnings of the race which were won by Charles Dickens in 2024 and Al Muthanna (Charles Dickens 2nd) in 2023 in 1.37.88 and 1.38.22 respectively
Montein ran really well to maintain 2nd place having cut out the early pace with Snow Pilot who stayed into 5th. Montein also finished 4th in last years race.
Royal Aussie ran his usual good race in 4th having finished 3rd in the 2024 race.
The Sean Tarry trained Lucky Lad can feel somewhat an ‘Unlucky Lad’ having sat out the back and was an eye catching 6th place finisher. McLloyd tracking timed his final 600m at 11.12 , 11.19 , 11.94 The versatile son of Gimmethegreenlight will be winning soon and could have been placed had he have been closer to the pace.
The Durban July winner Oriental Charm ran with credit in 7th and will improve for a step up in trip.
One Stripe the son of One World who was a brilliant colt in his own right should be considered to be a superb winner of this years Kings Plate . The clock doesn’t lie and he beat the times of previous top class winners of the race in a very impressive manner. There looks to be more to come from a very talented horse.
The other Group 1 race on the card was the 1800M Cartier Paddock Stakes.
Vibes coming from the Snaith Stable were super confident about star filly Double Grand Slam.
The step up in trip to 1800m was what she required and the filly excelled winning comfortably and showing great acceleration in the final 600m clocking 11.29,11.24 and 12.10. Held up in 8th place by record breaking pilot Richard Fourie she cruised to victory and along with Kings Plate winner has an entry at the Breeders Cup World Championships at Del Mar USA in November .
Can South African talent shines bright on a Global Stage ?
Another fantastic days racing at one of the worlds iconic cities !
All sectional times are provided by McLloyd Tracking Technology
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Chase Liebenberg – Photo Credit