Klawervlei Stud’s successful young stallion Twice Over gained yet a further boost to his impeccable pedigree when his half-brother Breath Caught won on the final day of the Craven meeting on Thursday.

A son of Bated Breath, Breath Caught was dispatched a 3-1 favourite for the Close Brothers Premium Finance Handicap and duly obliged –despite being slow into stride. The Ralph Beckett trained three-year-old hit the front with a furlong left to go in Thursday’s one mile contest and stayed on smartly to win by half a length.

Breath Caught, who has now won two of his four races,  is out of the Lingfield Oaks Trial winning Caerleon mare Double Crossed, who is best known as the dam of European champion Twice Over.

The latter was an exceptional racehorse whose 12 wins included no fewer than nine group or listed races, with Twice Over winning or placing in no fewer than 12 G1 races.

Twice Over, whose victories included back to back scores in the G1 Champion Stakes, has made an exceptional start to his stud career.

The champion’s first crop continues to impress, with Twice Over’s 25 first crop winners including G1 Tsogo Sun Gold Medallion hero Sand And Sea, G3 Politician Stakes winner Doublemint (who has been entered in the G3 Winter Guineas), G1 Investec Cape Derby second (and July entrant) Do It Again, and the progressive filly Twice As Smart. The latter, second in the recent G3 Umzimkhulu Stakes, has been entered in the G2 Daisy Fillies Guineas next month.

Understandably, Twice Over remains very popular in the sales ring, and he had yearlings fetch up to R900 000 at the 2018 Cape Premier Yearling Sale.

The champion has 14 lots on offer at next week’s Emperors Palace National Yearling Sale, including a half-sister to millionaire Masai Warrior (Lot 30), a half-brother to G2 winners Straight Set and Unparalleled (Lot 510, a filly from the Denise’s Joy family (Lot 107), and a half-sister to stakes winning filly Ocean’s Swift (Lot 448).