JET DARK LANDS CHAMPIONS CUP

The Justin Snaith trained Jet Dark stamped his Equus Award claims when running out a convincing winner of Saturday’s G1 HKJC World Pool Champions Cup (1800m) at Hollywoodbets Greyville.

Winner of the G1 LÓrmarins Queen’s Plate earlier in the season, the lightly raced three-year-old was making just his second start on Saturday since winning the Queen’s Plate, but was the highest rated runner in Saturday’s -the final G1 contest of the 2020-2021 South African racing season.

Under former champion jockey S’Manga Khumalo, the Drakenstein Stud bred Jet Dark raced well off the pace set by stablemate Crown Towers.

Khumalo bought Jet Dark with a powerful late run down towards the inside of the course and the pair stayed on well to score by nearly half a length.

The 2021 Champions Cup was a triumph for the three-year-olds, with Jet Dark beating fellow three-year-old Catch Twentytwo into second place.

Runner up in the G1 Hollywoodbets Gold Challenge last time out (where he beat Jet Dark), Catch Twentytwo finished less than half a length off the winner, with Jet Dark’s stablemate Do It Again running on after the race was over to claim third spot-less than half a length behind Catch Twentytwo.

Favourite Got The Greenlight took fourth spot, just under two lengths off Jet Dark.

The latter claimed his fifth win from just nine starts and won the Champions Cup in a time of 110.18 seconds.

A R200 000 buy from the 2019 National Yearling Sale, Jet Dark is a son of Drakenstein Stud’s champion sire Trippi and the winning Jet Master mare Night Jet.

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