ONLY two horses have ever made R6,000,000 (€420,000) at auction in South Africa and Coolmore are involved in both of them.

At the big Cape Town sale in January, M.V. Magnier bought the sale-topper, a Trippi colt out of a Group 2 winner, and at the same sale 12 months earlier he and Markus Jooste outbid all opposition for a half-brother to a Group 2 winner by the Arlington Million winner Silvano.

The colt, named Silver Coin and bought in partnership between Sue Magnier, Diane Nagle, Jooste and Canadian David Graham, made his debut at Kenilworth on Tuesday.

He started favourite but the general expectation was that he would not manage to win. In Cape Town few trainers have their two-year-olds ready to score first time.

The tracks at the two main training centres are poor by Irish standards and there is a belief among trainers that horses last longer if they are given a gentle introduction.

RACED CLEAR

Joey Ramsden, Silver Coin’s trainer, had won five of the last 11 two-year-old races but not one with a first-timer and this one looked sure to be beaten when the previously-raced Victorious Captain went six lengths clear.

“I didn’t think any of us were going to get to him,” said rider Donovan Dillon. “I had to ask my horse a bit sooner than I would have wanted. He is still very green but he really lengthened and I was impressed with the way he responded. I hadn’t expected him to run this well – I thought he would probably be fourth or fifth.”

The colt got up only close home but Ramsden was also really taken with the way he did it, quickening throughout the final furlong to score by just under half a length.

“It would have been easy for him to throw in the towel first time but I loved the way he pegged back the leader,” he said. “Price tags never bother me, this is a smashing horse and he put up a run full of merit.”

Ramsden now has his eyes on the Langerman in June. This is Cape Town’s most significant two-year-old race and one that Ramsden has farmed like few others.

COOLMORE

The Coolmore involvement is important for South Africa as the world’s top stallion operation has had comparatively little to do with the country in the past, largely because quarantine restrictions have ruled out shuttle stallions.

The hope is that this colt will really excel and so pave the way for further investment.

At Turffontein last Saturday, Legal Eagle, beaten by Whisky Baron in the Met, was back over his favourite distance and he made all to land odds of 1/2 convincingly in the mile HF Oppenheimer Horse Chestnut Stakes for the second year running.

This was the gelding’s sixth Grade 1. He has now won 10 of his 17 races, including all his six starts over a mile, but his connections still feel he is as good over 10 furlongs despite the evidence of the form book.

“His pre-race antics on Met day told me there was something that wasn’t right,” said rider Anton Marcus, while racing manager Derek Brugman added that the five-year-old will try 10 furlongs once more in the President’s Champions Challenge in three weeks’ time.

The horse’s trainer, Sean Tarry, won seven of the 12 races and all the first six, despite the stable being under a cloud during the week with a possible virus infection, but he missed out in both the SA Classic Group 1s.

Mike de Kock took both, winning the colts race with the Australian-bred Heavenly Blue (by Snitzel out of a mare by the Vincent O’Brien-trained National Stakes winner El Prado) and the Fillies Classic with the Silvano filly Orchid Island. Both will step up to a mile and a half in the SA Oaks.

Quarantine

WHISKY Baron is now in quarantine in Mauritius and will race in Britain later in the year but his target is the Longines Hong Kong Cup on December 10th. Brett Crawford, his South African trainer, will continue to have charge of the horse who is unbeaten in five starts since being gelded in the middle of last year.

Captain America, third in the Met for the second year running, has the Rising Sun Gold Challenge on June 10th as his first major Durban target.