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Champion sprinter What A Winter made his Cape farewell in great style with a scintillating 13th victory at Kenilworth on Saturday.
Returning from a break, the son of Western Winter was handicapped to win the modest Pinnacle Stakes over 1000m and he duly obliged.
This was his swansong in Cape Town as he moves on to KwaZulu-Natal and will end his racing career in the G1 Mercury Sprint in July.
What A Winter has been nominated for the G1 Computaform Sprint at Turffontein on Champions Day but Carol Bass, wife of trainer Mike Bass, cast some doubt on his participation in the R1-million race.
“He’s going up to Durban – I don’t know about Johannesburg – and he will finish his racing career at the end of the season. After that he will stand at Drakenstein Stud,’’ she said.
What A Winter, Equus Champion Sprinter and Equus Champion Older Male in 2012, started at prohibitive odds of 1/5. He won by 2.25 lengths in 57.99 seconds.
All his 13 wins have been at Kenilworth plus 5 placings from 23 starts for earnings of R2 553 561. He has won or been placed in six G1 races.
Mike Bass trained the first two home as stablemate Lancelin came out of the pack to chase What A Winter with Cap Alright hanging on grimly for third.