Fresh off supplying an impressive winner at Hollywoodbets Greyville on Wednesday, Ridgemont Highlands’ red hot sire Canford Cliffs came up with another smart two-year-old winner when his daughter Ridgerunner justified favouritism to score impressively at Turffontein on Thursday.
Trained by Johan Janse Van Vuuren, Ridgerunner was all the rage for Thursday’s #ThisIsRacing Welcomes You Juvenile Plate (1000m) with the filly eventually jumping a 5-10 tote favourite.
Under an inform Keagan De Melo, Ridgerunner lived up to her pre-race billing with a smooth performance, with the Canford Cliffs daughter pulling well clear to score by two and a quarter lengths.
Making just her second racetrack appearance, the Ridgemont Highlands bred and owned Ridgerunner had finished second on debut, and she looks another tremendous advertisement for her five time G1 winning sire Canford Cliffs.
Ridgerunner, who is out of the Brave Tin Soldier mare Easy Street, is the ninth winner to have emerged thus far from the first South African bred and born crop of former star miler Canford Cliffs.
This crop has also produced the hugely promising Listed City Of Cape Town Summer Juvenile Stakes/Listed East Cape Nursery winner Cliff Top and the smart winners Body Electric, I Am Regal, and Big Slick.
The latter has won two of just three starts, with Big Slick having finished third on his only other appearance.
Canford Cliffs is currently well clear on South Africa’s Leading First Seasons Sires List, having sired more than double the winners of his nearest rival on that list.
