Unbelievable Chad le Clos at the races (video)
South African swimming hero Chad le Clos is clearly loving his first ride in the emotion-charged world of racehorse ownership and described having his first winner at Scottsville yesterday as an “unbelievable” feeling.
FILE PICTURE: Chad le Clos. (Photo by Anesh Debiky/Gallo Images)
The Paul Lafferty-trained Toreador colt Unbelievable Chad is the first horse Le Clos has ever owned and looks to be a decent sort in the making.
Having been unlucky on debut over 1200m on July 15 at Scottsville, the colt then finished a narrow second in a strong field over the same course and distance on August 26. However, he relished the step up to 1400m yesterday and sauntered to a 4,25 length victory under Stuart Randolph.
Chad has been on course for every one of his runs and said yesterday that on each occasion he had been “very proud” of his horse. He looks to be becoming quite attached to the handsome bay colt, which he part-owns with Greg Blank, Phillip Kahan and Bridget Conway.
“He’s a beauty”, he said. His broad smile when being interviewed by Deez Dyanand for Tellytrack after the race said it all and the intermittent waves to his cheering fans were reminiscent of those he shares when standing on the top level of the podium.
His father Bert was also on course. Bert’s interview on BBC after Chad had upset his hero Michael Phelps to win gold in the Olympics 200m butterfly went viral as he couldn’t stop saying “UN-believable, UN-believable.”
Consequently, the word will forever be associated with Chad and his autobiography has duly been called “Unbelievable”. Bert thanked his good friend of many years Paul Lafferty for recommending the horse as Chad faced a choice between buying shares in Unbelievable Chad or a Jay Peg gelding of the same age named “Le Clos”.
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