FRONT And Centre, out of a mare by the Ballymacoll-bred Alignment, stretched her unbeaten to run to four with a comfortable win in the Group 1 World Sports Betting Cape Fillies Guineas at Kenilworth last Saturday and gave the Kieswetter family its first classic success.

Wayne Kieswetter made his fortune out of Scotch whisky - he was part owner of a distillery until selling it for a vast profit - and has been ploughing the money into racing.

He owns the Barnane Stud in Templemore and raced this year’s Pretty Polly Stakes winner Urban Fox under that name.

In South Africa he owns the Highlands Stud, one of the biggest in the country and home of the likes of Canford Cliffs and Front And Centre’s sire Dynasty. He has become a regular buyer at the top Melbourne yearling sale and retains four-time champion Anton Marcus who admitted that his Fillies Guineas ride was pretty much all plain sailing.

Kieswetter was understandably thrilled, saying: “Winning a classic is what we breed horses for - it’s the pinnacle” while his Scottish-born wife Belinda added: “It’s like winning a gold medal at the Olympics.”

Also involved are their two sons Ross and Craig whose England cricket career was brought to a premature end when a ball hit him in the face and affected his eyesight.

Alignment is by Alzao, was trained by Sir Michael Stoute and considered good enough to run in the 1998 Musidora although she finished last of four. Trainer Brett Crawford is now considering taking on older horses in the Paddock Stakes and the Majorca.

CAPE GUINEAS

In the Cape Guineas, run on the same day for the first time, Mike de Kock beat the great Terrance Millard’s 117 Group 1 winner South African record when Hamdan Al Maktoum’s Shadwell Australasia-bred Soqrat (by Epaulette) proved too strong for the Cape Town horses with the previously undefeated One World only third.

Millard, who is still alive, retired in 1991 to hand over the reins to his son Tony who now trains in Hong Kong and De Kock said: “Just to be mentioned in the same breath as Terrance Millard is good enough for me. What I remember from my early days is that we were in absolute awe of him.”

Soqrat now takes on the older horses in the Queen’s Plate on Saturday fortnight even though three-year-olds have a poor record in the country’s top mile race. Only one has been successful in the past 45 years.

The colt was ridden by De Kock’s stable jockey Randall Simons who, surprisingly, had never before ridden a winner in Cape Town.

He said: “I thought I would be under pressure behind Anton Marcus on One World but not a bit of it. I was always going well.”

Some of the principal contenders for the Queen’s Plate and the 10-furlong Sun Met (January 26th) lined up for the mile Group 2 Green Point Stakes at Kenilworth a fortnight ago and, amazingly, only three short-heads separated the four main contenders - dual Horse of the Year Legal Eagle who was winning the race for the third successive season, Group 1 winner Undercover Agent, Durban July hero Do It Again and the previously unbeaten Rainbow Bridge.

RUMOURS

The following day rumours started spreading that Bernard Fayd’Herbe on Rainbow Bridge had weighed in a kilo overweight and that this had been hushed up by the officials.

However, the clerk of the scales’ records, and those of his reports to the stipes, showed that it was only half a kilo which is allowed under the rules.

However, it could, in theory at any rate, have made the difference between fourth place and first. Rainbow Bridge’s trainer Eric Sands, who had not been told about the overweight, was not best pleased. Rainbow Bridge is now favourite for the Met and Do It Again second favourite.

Hawwaam stays home

MIKE de Kock has decided against sending his exciting Dingaans winner Hawwaam from Johannesburg to Cape Town for the Met.

African Horse Sickness regulations and restrictions have been tightened up to such an extent that the trainer feels he cannot risk the colt making the arduous journey. It took Soqrat 27 hours to travel.