South Africa’s reigning Champion Sire Gimmethegreenlight is having a fantastic run of success of late, and the son of More Than Ready’s great run continued when Gimmethegreenlight came up with four winners on Saturday.
Gimmethegreenlight’s four-timer included three winners at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth, with his exciting three-year-old Barbaresco winning impressively at Turffontein on the same day.
Runner up in the G3 Betway Got The Greenlight Stakes last time out, the Johan Janse Van Vuuren-trained Barbaresco showed his class when romping home to claim Saturday’s Racehorse Owners Association MR 96 Handicap (1600m) by two and a half lengths.
Bred by his part-owner Laurence Wernars, Barbaresco was ridden to victory by Ryan Munger. The flashy grey has now won twice from just six starts, with Barbaresco yet to finish out of the first three.
Barbaresco is out of the Fort Wood mare Negroamaro, and is thus bred on the same Gimmethegreenlight/Fort Wood cross as graded stakes winners Cala Muretta, Eye Of The Prophet, Green Pepper, Hack Green, and Second Base to name a few.
Gimmethegreenlight had a great day at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth on Saturday where he was responsible for three winners. He went close to having another winner at Kenilworth on Saturday when his daughter Go Like Flo ran a creditable second in the sixth race.
Already the sire of such champion two-year-olds as Got The Greenlight and Sandringham Summit, Gimmethegreenlight looks to have another nice juvenile to his name in the form of Impact Investor. The latter caught the eye when romping home to win Saturday’s first race by three and three-quarter lengths. Making just his second start, the Justin Snaith-trained Impact Investor stormed home, under Grant Van Niekerk, to win the Hollywoodbets Kenilworth Welcomes You Maiden Juvenile Plate (1100m) as he liked. Bred by Varsfontein Stud, Impact Investor had finished fourth on his only previous start and he looks to have plenty of upside to him.
Out of the Dynasty mare Templeton, Impact Investor was an R800 000 buy from the 2023 National Yearling Sale.
His sire struck again in the very next race when Gimmethegreenlight gelding In The Bag won the second race, the Cape Racing Sales Maiden Plate (1400m), for Candice Bass-Robinson and Aldo Domeyer.
Another bred by Varsfontein, three-year-old In The Bag had finished third on his previous start.
Gimmethegreenlight is also the sire of Gimme More Time, who won the fifth race at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth on Saturday for Justin Snaith and Richard Fourie. Now a dual winner, Gimme More Time was bred by his owner Winston Chow.
A dual Champion Sire in South Africa, Gimmethegreenlight had another big day at Turffontein last Saturday when his unbeaten daughter Gimme A Nother won the G2 Wilgerbosdrift Gauteng Fillies Guineas and his champion son Sandringham Summit landed the G2 TAB Gauteng Guineas respectively.
Once again heading the General Sires List, Gimmethegreenlight has been responsible for six black-type winners this season with his progeny having already earned more than R11.848 million in 2023-2024.