The evergreen Canford Cliffs gelding Cliff Top shed his maiden certificate with a victory in the Listed Summer Juvenile Stakes at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth in January 2021, and five summers later the now 6yo is still paying his way and scored a smart victory under topweight in the R175 000 non black-type Glendore Sprint at Fairview on Friday.
The feature victory capped a fabulous Fairview Friday for the combination of Alan Greeff, Richard Fourie, Hollywood Racing and Ridgemont, who celebrated a treble, the champion trainer-jockey combination adding a fourth success with Peter Moor’s promising William Longsword gelding Royal Kingdom, who made it three wins on the trot when he scored in the Guineas Plate.
The Hollywood Racing-Ridgemont-Greeff-Fourie winning streak started when the lightly-tried Rafeef 4yo Cadenza, shed his maiden at his second start. Then Cliff Top scored in the feature, with Rafeef’s super-consistent daughter Smashing making it 5 wins from 29 starts – with 15 place cheques – when rocketing home to win the 1200m MR 74 Handicap, the penultimate race on the card.
Cliff Top’s success was the highlight, returning as he did to the winner’s enclosure after an eighteen month absence. After tracking the speedy Paris Lass all the way around the 1000m circuit, Richard Fourie shook Cliff Top (7-1) up at the 300m and the unassuming gelding bounced clear to beat the 5-4 favourite Roman Agent by 1,25 lengths in a time of 57,22s.
Europe’s dominant miler at three and four, Canford Cliffs won five consecutive Gr1 races over the trip. He has produced winners in over 30 countries, including more than 40 global stakes performers.
His smart son Cliff Top has now won 8 races with 17 places from 39 starts for stakes of R1 085 830.
The winner was bred by Ridgemont Highlands out of the Western Winter one-time winner Bacqueira.
The next Fairview racemeeting is on the polytrack on Friday 28 November.
Craig Zackey rode a single winner on the day and holds a 16 win lead over the Ridgemont-sponsored Richard Fourie on the national log going into the weekend.