Ridgemont’s top-class sire Rafeef looks to have come up with a top-class colt in the form of Haute Couture.
The latter made it two wins from two starts when he won the G1 Gold Medallion (1200m) at Hollywoodbets Scottsville on Saturday.

In the process, Haute Couture became his sire’s fifth G1 winner, with Rafeef’s G1 winners including 2022 Gold Medallion winner Thunderstruck.

A ten and a half length winner on debut, the Mike and Mathew De Kock trained Haute Couture made a mockery of his inexperience when he won Saturday’s R1.75 million feature.

Under Callan Murray, Haute Couture was always up with the pace, and he settled down to fight out the finish with favourite Rich Man’s World.
The Rafeef colt just put his head down where it mattered most with Haute Couture going on to win the 2026 Gold Medallion by a long neck.

Bred by Wilgerbosdrift & Mauritzfontein, Haute Couture races for the Murugasa family.
Haute Couture, a R2 100 000 buy from the 2025 National Yearling Sale, is out of the Var mare Isle De France and is thus bred on the same cross as such G1 winning sires Master Archie and Thunderstruck.

The inform Rafeef has another very smart two-year-old on his hands in the form of Flower Island, with the latter finishing second in Saturday’s G2 Allan Robertson Championship.