Varsfontein Stud’s champion sire Gimmethegreenlight continues to churn out feature race winners, and South Africa’s reigning Champion Sire struck yet again when Gimmethegreenlight gelding Countdown won the Listed East Cape Sprint Cup (1200m) at Fairview on Friday.
It was a second successive win in the race for Countdown, with the Glen Kotzen-trained four-year-old having won the 2023 East Cape Sprint by a length.
Runner up in the G2 Cape Merchants earlier this season (when beaten only by his paternal half-brother Cosmic Highway), Countdown made it win number five with a smart display on Friday.
Under Denis Schwarz, Countdown kept finding in the closing stages to hold off a fast finishing The Winter Lake and score by a head.
Bred by Varsfontein Stud, Countdown is out of the Philanthropist mare Imperadora.
The gelding was a R200 000 purchase from the 2021 National Yearling Sale.
Gimmethegreenlight’s good weekend continued at Turffontein on Saturday, with his daughters Waitforgreenlight, Light Of Day, and Mary’s Greenlight winning the first, eighth and ninth races respectively.

Remarkably, Gimmethegreenlight came up with three more winners at Hollywoodbets Greyville on Sunday, which took the champion’s weekend tally of winners to seven.

Twice Champion Sire in South Africa, the G1 L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate-winning son of legendary shuttle sire More Than Ready is once again heading the premiership for the 2023-2024 season.
Gimmethegreenlight has an outstanding draft on offer at the upcoming National Yearling Sale, with the Varsfontein resident responsible for yearlings out of such high-class racemares as Honorine, Montreal Mist, Sabina Park, Silver Mountain, Siren’s Call, Smart Call, Snapscan, and Witchcraft.