Homebred Tap o' Noth Lands Cape Guineas

The well-fancied Tap o' Noth (SAF) gave trainer Vaughan Marshall his fifth victory in the 1,600-meter (about one mile) Forus Cape Guineas (G1), the start of South Africa's Triple Crown for 3-year-olds.

Tap o' Noth overcame the outside barrier draw in the 14-horse field at Kenilworth Park in Cape Town and settled in midfield one horse off the fence, before he was produced by jockey MJ Byleveld to take the lead a furlong and a half from the finish.

He drew clear and had enough to comfortably hold out the fast-finishing White River (SAF), a son of 2000 Vosburgh Stakes (G1) winner Trippi. Like a Panther (SAF) also closed strongly from well back to finish third.

Tap o' Noth started a 4-1 favorite for the Cape Guineas after he won the Highlands Stud Langerman (G3) and the Cape Classic (G3), both at Kenilworth Park. The Cape Guineas was the bay colt's fourth win in five starts.

The homebred for veteran breeder Alec Foster became the 15th group 1 winner for his locally-bred sire Captain Al (SAF), a son of the U.S.-bred Al Mufti (Roberto), a leading sire in South Africa. Captain Al was the leading sire in South Africa in 2014-15 and has been the leading sire of 2-year-olds in South Africa eight times. He died of laminitis in July.

Marshall won the race last year with William Longsword, another son of Captain Al.

Tap o' Noth's dam, Wintersweet (SAF), is a daughter of Western Winter (Gone West), a U.S. stakes winner who earned grade 1 placings in the Metropolitan Handicap and the Carter Handicap. Wintersweet also produced Strathdon (Silvano), who took the Mahala TV Cape Summer Stayers Handicap (G3) on Saturday's card at Kenilworth. Wintersweet's full sister Grace Me Guide produced the Greyville KZN Guineas (G2) winner Black Arthur (Silvano) and the Arlington East Cape Derby (G3) winner Robert the Bruce (Jallad).

South Africa's Triple Crown is a little unusual, in that there are alternative races that count as the first leg: the Cape Guineas and the 1,600-meter Gauteng Guineas (G2), held in March at Turffontein in Johannesburg. The Cape Guineas was added as an alternate race to encourage Cape-based horses to participate in the series.

The second leg is the 1,800-meter (about 1 1/8 miles) South Africa Classic (G1) at Turffontein, and it is rounded off with the 2,450-meter (just more than 1 1/2 miles) South African Derby (G1) at Turffontein.

Just three horses have completed the treble: Horse Chestnut in 1999, Louis The King in 2014, and Abashiri in 2016.