Bold Respect Tops in the Grade 1 Tsogo Sun Sprint
Story by Mark van Deventer.
Bold Respect deservedly won the prestigious Grade 1 Tsogo Sun Sprint at Scottsville in a formidable pace- pressing display. He literally galloped his rivals into submission, racing upfront the whole way. Trainer Brett Crawford’s tactics were vindicated, saying, “He’s such a fast horse and we didn’t want to break his momentum in any way.”
The three year old son of Bold Silvano, bred at Ascot Stud, won the In Full Flight Sprint down this straight course a month ago and repeated the treatment against a quality field of sprinters from right around the country. Brett said, “He’d come on since that win, so we were confident of a big run on Saturday.” Pinnacle Peak, who started his career in PE before running second in the Computaform Sprint three weeks ago at Turffontein, again finished second in this 1200m contest, with Crawford Racing’s stable mate to the winner, Sunset Eyes running most gamely into third place.
Bold Respect has compiled a clean career record of four wins from 11 starts, showing really smart ability from the beginning. In January 2017, he won the Kuda Sprint down the straight six at Kenilworth as a juvenile, beating off Wonderwall. In October that year, Brett was particularly impressed with his effort when only getting beat half a length by Sergeant Hardy in a Pinnacle Stakes, finishing ahead of other Grade 1 winning sprinters, Search Party and Attenborough.
The gelding was stretched out for the Lanzerac (when getting mugged on the line by Miss Katalin) before a below par fail in the Guineas. Brett then decided to refocus Bold Respect on sprinting where another tough beat second to Sir Frenchie in the Sophomore, and an unplaced run three lengths back in the Flying Champs, ensued.
Beginning in April, the KZN campaign has mapped out perfectly for Delma Sherrell’s bay hero, who seemingly loves the Scottsville track. Full credit is due to Peter Muscutt for priming Bold Respect who has now paired two tremendous performances, on cue.
Accolades must also go to stable jockey, Corne Orffer for handling the big race pressure, whilst skilfully executing such a positive ride. Bold Respect has already earned nearly R2 million in stakes, ten times his purchase price at the 2016 Ready To Run sale.