Thursday 8 december 2016 The Trippi mare Real Princess is in prime form | Gold Circle 6 - 12 January 2017 Gr2 Southern Cross Stakes Kenilworth Two Gr1 winning speed-queens clash in a return match of this 1000m sprint. Triple Gr1 winner Carry On Alice won last year, with Real Princess less than a length back in third. Carry On Alice and Real Princess meet on the same terms. This race is at weight-for-age plus penales, with 4yo’s and older carrying 58 kg. Penales are 2kg for a Gr1 win, and 1kg for a Gr2. carry On alice has her first run as a 5yo, and comes in off a 27 week break aſter being beaten two lengths by Real Princess in the Gr1 Sa Fillies Sprint, run at pure weight-for-age. In that race alice had no luck when being baulked in running aſter being slow off. dean Kannemeyer’s Real Princess, if anything, is a beer racehorse than 12 months ago. her opening run this term looks good on paper too aſter Search Party’s gun-to-tape romp in the merchants last week. She’d given that one 2kg when beaten by just over length. That looks a good enough recom- mendaon. Lightly raced Laisserfaire Stakes winner beach Goddess could give the top guns a run for their money. The daughter of Kildonan is fit and loaded with talent and enthusiasm. Jusn Snaith’s pair of Victoria Lavelle and Jo’s bond meet beach Goddess on marginally beer terms than their last runs. That said, they look to be place hopefuls at very best. eric Sands’ champery finished closest of the carded runners to beach Goddess in the Laisser- faire, when beaten a length, and is half a kilo beer off here. Varumba faded to run four lengths back in the same race, and now is 2kg worse off with winner beach Goddess. corne Spies makes a welcome trip to the cape Let’s Get Real Wednesday 7 December Greyville - race 4 Sporting Post Best Handicapped Dunham WON 18/1 FAIRVIEW turf Friday Best Roving Banker: r5 - (6) Master James (4/1) GREYVILLE poly Friday Best Roving Banker: r1 – (6) Rae’s Dyna Jet (1/1) KENILWORTH Saturday Best Roving Banker: r6-(4) Wake Up Maggie (3/1) VAAL Saturday Best Roving Banker: r9 – (2) Joan Ranger (12/10) SCOTTSVILLE Sunday Best Roving Banker: r7 – (11) Breakfast Club (4/1)
Transcript
SPORTING POST • ThuRSday 8 decembeR 2016 1
Thursday 8 december 2016
The Trippi mare Real Princess is in prime form | Gold Circle
6 - 12 January 2017
Gr2 Southern Cross Stakes Kenilworth
Two Gr1 winning speed-queens clash in a return match of this 1000m sprint. Triple Gr1 winner Carry On Alice won last year, with Real Princess less than a length back in third. Carry On Alice and Real Princess meet on the same terms.
This race is at weight-for-age plus penalties, with 4yo’s and older carrying 58 kg. Penalties are 2kg for a Gr1 win, and 1kg for a Gr2.
carry On alice has her first run as a 5yo, and comes in off a 27 week break after being beaten two lengths by Real Princess in the Gr1 Sa Fillies Sprint, run at pure weight-for-age. In that race alice had no luck when being baulked in running after being slow off.
dean Kannemeyer’s Real Princess, if anything, is a better racehorse than 12 months ago. her opening
run this term looks good on paper too after Search Party’s gun-to-tape romp in the merchants last week. She’d given that one 2kg when beaten by just over length. That looks a good enough recom-mendation.
Lightly raced Laisserfaire Stakes winner beach Goddess could give the top guns a run for their money. The daughter of Kildonan is fit and loaded with talent and enthusiasm. Justin Snaith’s pair of Victoria Lavelle and Jo’s bond meet beach Goddess on marginally better terms than their last runs. That said, they look to be place hopefuls at very best. eric Sands’ champery finished closest of the carded runners to beach Goddess in the Laisser-faire, when beaten a length, and is half a kilo better off here. Varumba faded to run four lengths back in the same race, and now is 2kg worse off with winner beach Goddess.
with the new Sa sprint record holder Scandal. The muhtafal filly scorched the Fairview 1000m last Friday to set a new track and Sa record, and now gets thrown in the deep end over a more testing 1200m. She will be looking to cement her new credentials.
dennis drier has enjoyed mixed fortunes after a flying start to his cape Summer campaign. his coupling includes the only 3yo in the line-up, the count dubois filly
anime. She opened her cape score-card with a decent win over china Pearl in an mR 76 hand-icap over Saturday’s track and
trip. Stablemate Rock On baby has had two opening cape runs without producing any sparks and tries blinkers for the first time.
Real Princess and carry On alice are a pair apart in terms of class. So let’s get real: they should fight it out.
2012 1 Via Africa 56.0 ( 2) 1/1 2 Victorian Secret 56.0 ( 4) 35/1 3 Reflective Image 60.0 ( 5) 25/12013 1 Fairyinthewoods 60.0 ( 7) 14/1 2 Agra 60.0 ( 3) 15/1 3 Via Africa 60.0 ( 2) 4/102014 1 Fly By Night 60.0 ( 1) 3/1 2 Alboran Sea 56.0 ( 2) 11/10 3 Savannah Song 60.0 ( 3) 25/12015 1 Carry On Alice 60.0 ( 1) 2/1 2 Cuvee Brut 58.0 ( 8) 14/1 3 Real Princess 58.0 (12) 20/1
Gr2 Southern Cross S.past winners
START PA6/PICK SIX5/JACKPOT44:15PM Gr2 SouTheRn CRoSS STAkeS (F&M) - 1000MkenilwoRTh 8 SAME TRAINER:(3-4)(8-10) Captain al 1 CARRY ON ALICE(SG Tarry) S khumalo ............. 9 60.0 trippi 2 REAL PRINCEss(D Kannemeyer) A Delpech ....... 5 60.0 Captain al 3 VICtORIA LAVELLE(J Snaith) A Domeyer .......... 2 58.0 Captain al 4 JO’s BONd(J Snaith) D Dillon .............................. 7 58.0 Kildonan 5 BEACh GOddEss(BJ Crawford) C orffer ............ 1 58.0 Muhtafal 6 sCANdAL(C Spies) G v niekerk ..........................10 58.0 Querari 7 ChAmPERY(AE Sands) G Cheyne ........................ 3 58.0 Seventh roCK 8 ROCk ON BABY(DR Drier) R Fourie .................... 4 58.0 var 9 VARumBA(VH Marshall) M Byleveld .................... 8 58.0 Count duboiS 10 ANImE(DR Drier) S Veale ...................................... 6 54.0
hugh Bowman takes LonGInES International Jockeys' Championshipaustralian ace hugh bowman made all the running to secure his
first win in a dramatic LONGINeS International Jockeys' champion-ship at happy Valley, hong Kong. It was a case of third time lucky for the jockey after finishing out of it in 2009 and 2015.This time it was all to play for in the final leg, with bowman out in front on 18 points, Ryan moore on 14 points, mirco demuro on 12 points and Florent Geroux on eight points - all with a chance of securing the crown as the championship went down to the wire. In that final leg, happily for hugh bowman, none of his pursuers could reach the frame. South african jockey Gavin Lerena, who won the title last year, was unplaced.
Full Field of 16 for Guineas Merit ratings suggest that this is not one of the strongest Guineas in history, with just one horse coming in with MR 108 and the rest MR 101 or less.
In the last five years the winners were Noah From Goa (108), act Of War (113), elusive Gold (104), capetown Noir (103), Variety club (110). big shoes to fill!
R 2.160.000.000Total attendance for the Wednesday banner event of Inter-
national Jockeys at happy Valley was 29.601, the highest in the event's history since 1999. Turnover for the day eclipsed hK$1.24 billion – which is the equivalent of 2.16 billion Rand.
Grand Parade Gr1 CAPE GUINEAS R1-million, Kenilworth 1600m, Saturday 17 December
For 3yo horses (1st Leg SASCOC Triple Crown)
sire horse MR trainer jockeyredoute’s Choice Table Bay (AuS) 108 ramsden MarcusGimmethegreenlight Gunner 101 Gadsby blerenaGimmethegreenlight hack Green 101 drier veale Snitzel heavenly Blue (AuS) 100 de Kock MarwingZoffany Zodiac Ruler (AuS) 100 Snaith StrydomCount dubois edict of nantes 99 bCrawford orfferCaptain al william longsword 99 Marshall byleveldphilanthropist Singapore Sling 98 Woodruff GlerenaWestern Winter Bishop’s Bounty 97 Snaith domeyervisionaire Africa Rising 96 tarry Khumalotrippi Gold Standard 96 Kotzen fouriedynasty Craven 91 bCrawford fayd’herbeelusive fort elevated 90 burger/vreenen CheyneSail from Seattle Pacific Spirit 90 bremner Zechnerpathfork elusive Path 88 Marshall G v niekerknew approach A new Dawn (AuS) 85 ramsden dillonMambo in Seattle i Travel light 84 ramsden reservebold Silvano Boldly Respectable 91 Crawford reserve
ImagIneBuying a Frankel with SA Rands There are four Frankel yearlings catalogued for the Cape
Premier Sale in January, two colts and two fillies. Their Irish-bred dams are by Invincible Spirit, holy Roman emperor and Fastnet Rock (2x).
how high will the buyers be prepared to go?The current top price for any yearling in Sa is R5.2 million,
achieved at this same cape sale in 2015. That’s the equivalent of £300.000 (or some $370.000).
Ten Frankel yearlings sold at Tattersalls (book One) two months ago, varying in price from 250.000 to 1.6 million guineas. Only three of the ten went for 300.000 guineas or less, one of them a filly bought by mayfair Speculators for 300.000 guineas.
are we taking bets that our Sa record price will go?
115Marinaresco’s new Merit Rating following his close second to Legal eagle in the Green Point Stakes.his pre-race rating there had been mR 110 vs Legal eagle’s 120. The two are likely to meet in the 2000m Gr1 Sun met with the eagle carrying 60kg vs. 59.5kg for his opponent. In the ante-post betting for the Sun met from hollywood the favourite is marinares-co at 2/1, with Legal eagle 22/10, bela-bela and It’s my Turn at 12/1, and 16/1 bar. but first, of course, we’ll have the l’Ormarins Queen’s Plate over 1600m, which is at weight-for-age three weeks before the Sun met.
54.38The number of seconds needed by muhtafal filly Scandal to win the Glendore Sprint over 1000m at Fairview, setting a new South african record for the distance. corne Spies-trained Scandal was the only filly in the race, winning by almost 2 lengths from Nor-manz.
a R375.000 National yearling Sale purchase, backworth-bred Scandal has won 5 races on both surfaces. The filly is set to travel to the cape for this week’s South-ern cross sprint.
We Got Your Number The contacts of 7000 owners, trainers, breeders, agents,
administrators and commercial enterprises in the Sa and International Racing & breeding Industry, can be found in the 31st Sa Turf directory. an indispensable item, the pocket-sized ‘Racing bible’ has been published by John Freeman since 1985. enquiries at [email protected]
Shoe-In!No surprises as the KZN breed-ers award for horse of the year went to Talktothestars, with mR 121 South africa’s highest rated sprinter (and joint-high-est rated overall, with Smart call). The gelding by Overlord (danehill) also took the award for Outstanding Older male and Outstanding Sprinter male. his dam Tellitothestars, a pro-ducer of four winners with 18 wins between them, was voted broodmare Of The year. Talkto-thestars is bred by Robin Scott under the Scott bros banner.
Not unexpectedly South af-rica’s champion breeder Sum-merhill turned out to be the Leading KZN breeder, taking home five other awards for Ra-bada, heaps Of Fun and arch Rival.
World’s BestBritish jockey Ryan Moore has won the title of 2016 Longines World’s best Jockey for the second time in three years. moore won eight of the world’s Top 100 Gr1 races, in 5 different coun-tries aboard 6 different horses. The Longines World’s best Jockey award is based on performances in the 100 highest-rated Gr1 races as established by the Longines World’s best Racehorse Rankings committee.
Vaal NewbieZimbabwe’s 2015/16 champion Trainer Gokhan Terzi has been allocated 40 stables at the Vaal from January 2017. he will be downsizing his Zimbabwe operation from 80 horses to 25, and that may eventually close de-pending on the economy North of the Limpop. his first load for the Vaal hit the road on 14 december, and the balance of the initial 25 will depart a fortnight later.
Short Heads
Marcus: Luck or Master Stroke?
The split times for the Cape Fillies Guineas are enlightening. hand timed, the 1600m race went in 100.04s. It began as fast as the Green Point Stakes, then pacemaker She’s a Giver slowed things up around the turn. That was just where anton marcus made his move from behind on Just Sensual, going wide. Just Sensual had been 3rd last of the fifteen entering the bend, but was sixth on the heels of Safe harbour (in 5th) coming off the bend. marcus may not quite have realised what went on when he made his move, but tactically it was a master stroke - else he’d been left with too much to do in the sprint home.
The splits:1600m Bend entstr finish entstrt/finishmR83 F&m 27.24 65.40 101.44 36.04Green Point S. 24.18 61.06 96.75 35.69Fillies Guineas 24.24 64.21 99.84 35.63
Max in MauritiusFrenchman maxime Guyon was crowned champion jockey for the 2016 mauritius International Jockeys’ weekend. he scored 44 points, 18 points ahead of australian James Winks, who won a tie-break against India’s Pradeep chouhan. australia’s mark Zahra finished in 4th with 22 points, with new mauritius champ donavan mansour 5th on 21 points. Swazi born Sena Levey finished on 2 points.
Dr Antrobus, who describes himself as an equine neonatologist and gynaecologist, is – despite his protestations – one of the best-loved vets in the country.
Reproductive vet extraordinaire, Highlands’ resident expert for many years, Jet Master’s personal physician and breeder of recent CTS Sales race winner (and Fillies Guineas 2nd) Safe Harbour. Jim Antrobus is, as one long-standing breeder stated firmly, ‘a treasure. An absolute treasure!’
James herriot (or more correctly, alf Wight), loosely styled himself on P.G. Wodehouse and one description runs, “the her-riot stories include sad and poignant passages, which you never find in Wodehouse – but both authors were writing nostalgically about a halcyon world that had long since disappeared.”
Fortunately, the world from dr antrobus’ stories is still very current, mainly because he never fails to find the wonder – and the humour – in almost any situation.
About JimJim, or to give his full name, Ronald James, was
born, bred and raised in Northern and Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe and Zambia). his father was an engineer who built bridges for the railways and
Jim says he always naturally assumed
he would follow in his father’s footsteps and
study engi-neering.
P e r S o n a l i t y
however, having started university in KZN, he was about two weeks in when he went to see his counselor and said he wanted to change to veterinary.
The reply was not very encouraging as he didn’t even have the correct subjects, but he managed to change and a year later was accepted into Onderstepoort. he was home in bulawayo when they received a telegram confirming his acceptance. unfortunate-ly it was written in afrikaans, so the family had to find an afri-kaans speaking neighbor before they could decipher what it said!
however, the engineering field’s loss was the veterinary profes-sion’s gain.
With his usual eye for the humour in any situation, Jim arrived in Pretoria. at his first lecture the lecturer asked the class – in afrikaans – whether anyone had trouble understanding the lan-guage. blissfully unaware what was being asked, a fellow student had to nudge Jim to put his hand in the air (and then explain what for!).
It wasn’t the first time the language barrier would be a prob-lem. after qualifying, the Zim bush war meant there was no veterinary work at home, so young Jim came back to South africa and eventually found locum work and finally a permanent posi-tion at Wellington animal hospital – where he still works today.
being in an agricultural part of the boland, his lack of afrikaans again proved a challenge as some of the local cattle farmers in particular did not want him working on their animals – and one particularly tetchy old gent insisted that the ‘engelsman’ wait by the gate while his afrikaans speaking colleague attended to the cows. but bit by bit he won them over. a few things also get lost in translation and Jim has hilarious stories including advising one hapless client seeking help with an ‘eekhoring’ to feed it worms.
“Well, they said it fell out of a tree!” he laughs. another incident included a muddle over the word ‘muis’ which while generally used to refer to a rodent, is also used for describing bovine reproductive anatomy, which caused the young vet much bemusement, but it is worth hearing him tell the stories to fully appreciate them. although Wellington animal hospital is a gener-al practice, he found himself doing a lot of work for ‘little studs’, many of which are now gone, but gradually the horse work built up.
Patricia O’NeillGeorge Faull was the go to horse vet of the day and left a huge
void when he stopped practicing. Patricia O’Neill was looking for someone at broadlands and was recommended ‘young antro-
bus’. Pat had just had one of her good race fillies, marisa, back to stud. When dr Faull had put her in the crush for an exam, he had reputedly broken the crush. When he arrived,
it was suggested that Jim examine her without the crush. Jim was understandably reluctant, but with assurances from Pat that the filly would be ‘absolutely fine’, marisa was beauti-fully behaved and for the rest of her days happily accepted
being examined in a stable. “and that was my introduction to broadlands,” he
chuckles. “Pat helped put me on the map.” To this day, Jim says no-one in his family knows quite
where ‘the horse thing’ comes from, but either way, he just
South Africa’s James herriott
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P e r S o n a l i t y - J i m a n t r o b u S
seems to have a way with them. his first broodmare was named War Lover, which he bought from broadlands. his second was a filly called masai mara, which Pat gave him as a gift on the con-dition that she could keep the mare for her racing career. by the time she retired, masai mara had amassed some very respectable bold black type and Jim protested that Pat should keep the mare for the broadlands paddocks, but she was as good as her word and refused.
MatingsJim explains that he chooses his stallions on temperament and
fertility. Not too long after acquiring masai mara, Jim was asked to travel to beaufort West to attend to the newly arrived West-ern Winter, who’d taken ill en route to the cape. “We’d been to a wedding the night before and had to leave early as I had to leave for beaufort West at about 3am. There was no-one around to help me and I had to tube and drip the horse all by myself – I remember sitting on the fence holding up the drip bag and he just stood quietly next to me. I ended up spending most of the day with him and was so impressed by what a super temperament he had that I just had to send him a mare.”
masai mara was duly booked for a visit and the product was a horse called Natural Selection, who went on to dead heat for 4th with Pocket Power for the 2007 July and finish 2nd behind Strate-gic News in the 2007 Summer cup.
“Now ThaT was really something,” smiles Jim. he still has a bit of the family via masai mara’s daughter, Something Of Value.
The story of how he acquired Saint Isidore is equally interesting. Jim was working at Lammerskraal at the time when they received a good offer from australia for Kali mist (a daughter of Fashing). They purchasers wanted a companion to travel with her and mike Rattray offered St Isidore, who had been injured in training and was due to retire to the Lammerskraal broodmare band. One of the conditions of the deal was that both mares had to be in foal to Parade Leader. This was duly done, but when the pre-export bloods came back, Kali mist had failed the piroplasmosis test and the deal was off. While Fashing would simply stay at the stud, Jim enquired what might happen to Saint Isidore. When Sally said they usually sold mares to a breeder in the Karoo for the equiva-lent of the cover fee Jim offered to buy her instead. mike Rattray initially refused, but finally relented on the grounds that Jim is ‘old school’. “So that’s how I got Saint Isidore.”
Safe HarbourThe mating to elusive Fort came about mainly because she had
lost a foal by dynasty and elusive Fort was as close as he could get within a reasonable price range and in fact, Saint Isidore has had 3 foals by elusive Fort and is currently in foal to him again.
another of Jim’s claims to fame is that he was highlands’ resident vet for many years. most people who have worked for Graham beck have colourful stories about him and Jim is no ex-ception. One incident stands out particularly vividly. Surge ahead, the dam of crimson Waves and one of beck’s favourite mares, suddenly went backward. She steadily lost weight and no amount of tests could produce a conclusive result. Jim eventually resigned himself to the inevitable and penned a letter informing mr beck to prepare himself for the worst.
Of course, Surge ahead promptly blossomed with good health and went on to produce a steady line of foals. at his next visit, mr beck summed Jim for a meeting, exclaiming ‘Professor! you write me a letter saying my mare is at death’s door and ever since she’d
done nothing but do well and produce strong, healthy foals! I’m not sure what I’m paying you for!’ I later found out that mr beck only teased people he liked. he always called me ‘Professor’ after that,” he chuckles.
Bedside Manneralthough calling a vet is usually a stressful exercise for all
concerned, in Jim’s case, it is a pleasure because you know the cavalry has arrived! Small, bespectacled and perennially good-tempered, Jim is one of the nicest people on the planet, with his quiet and gentle manner calming man and beast alike. he is so famously good-natured that one breeder was moved to comment, ‘I don’t think Jim knows how to get cross!’ So is there anything that rattles him at all?
“clients being disorga-nised,” he confesses. With his hectic schedule, Jim has early starts, long hours on the road and a lot of farms and horses to see to, so clients and horses who aren’t pre-pared when he arrives take up precious time which in turn eats into the rest of the day’s appointments. how does he handle it?
“Well, there’s no point getting worked up, because you just upset the horses,” he says philosophically.
“One farm I visit regularly has a particularly difficult mare, but we’ve worked with her over the years and got her in a really good space, but if you turn up stressed or wound up, she picks it up immediately and gets difficult. So if I’m running late, I just take a deep breath and put her at the back of the queue. If you’re calm and in a good frame of mind, then everything goes much more smoothly.”
Jet MasterIt is this soft touch that led to his association with the mighty
Jet master. The stallion had notoriously strong opinions about who was and
was not allowed to work with him, but in Jim’s words “he took a shine to me” and they enjoyed a long and happy association until Jet master’s untimely illness. due to the hefty insurance contracts involved, Jim had to deal directly with Lloyds of London, taking instructions from them regarding the horse’s treatment, includ-ing the subsequent international team who were flown out to perform the surgery to his neck.
There aren’t many people who can accept that amount of out-side assistance with equanimity and asked how he managed Jim says, “a few years ago, I received a call from another vet who was called in to consult on a horse I was treating. he asked whether he might not be treading on my toes. I said absolutely not. Firstly, I have small feet! and secondly, why would I mind? The more the merrier and the more help and advice we can collect, the better for the horse. Which is what it’s all about, after all.”
Arc-en-Ciel, for so long a force on our breeding landscape, may have closed its stable doors a few years ago, but the name – and the farm – is still very much alive and well, albeit under its new guise as an exotic game farm.
Suzanne Rueda, Shirley Pfeiffer’s daughter, has kindly donated a game drive for two with a picnic lunch at the forthcoming Western Cape Equine Trust race day on Saturday, 10 December, so I popped in for a sneak peek.
But first, a little historyShirley Pfeiffer, who most will associate with the incomparable
July and Queen’s Plate winner Flaming Rock was a huge fixture on the South african racing scene in her day. While I never had the privilege of meeting her in person, descriptions usually include words such as lively, intelligent and gregarious, but the word that crops up most is ‘kind’ and stories sketch a mischievous, fun-lov-ing character who lived life to the full with a broad smile on her face.
Shirley was born and bred in durban. The family fortune came via the Rainbow chicken empire, founded by her brother, Stan-ley methven. Stanley had a vision that chicken would become a staple protein source and started the business on the family farm hammarsdale outside durban in 1960. Shirley had every faith in her brother who is described as a ‘perfectionist’ and a ‘metic-ulous man’ by those who knew him, and when he asked her to invest in his venture, in characteristic fearless fashion she replied ‘I’m in!’ The rest, as they say, is more or less history.
Shirley married and started a family in Pietermaritzburg, even-tually moving to cape Town in 1967. Racing was in its heyday and as the place to see and be seen and with Shirley loving a party a bit of gambling, it wasn’t long before she bought her first horse. Suzanne remembers, “It was in the days when horses used to be auctioned off at the end of race meetings. my father bought it for her and it was called Thunder cloud.” Shirley sent the horse to chris Snaith, who was doing very well in the cape hunt scene and he ran it in the point to point races. “Thunder cloud was a very good hurdler and that’s how it all started.”
Good horsesmost of Shirley’s horses were trained by chris Snaith and the
families became great friends. Sue Snaith relates, “We had a very special relationship. She was a great lady and we were both very fond of her. She had a lot of good horses, including What a beauty who was ‘got at’ before a feature race, but won in spite of it. Shirley was so chuffed. She loved that filly. She loved all her horses really. and of course there was Flaming Rock, who was wonderful, but kept bumping the good millard horses. When she won the July, I don’t think there was a more popular person to win it.”
“We were very young at the time, but she was the backbone of Snaith Racing and was with us through the good and the bad. She started out as a small buyer, then became a big buyer and then a breeder. She absolutely loved her racing.”
Chasing Different RainbowsSuzanneInterestingly, although Shirley loved her horses, she had no
interest in riding, but her daughter Suzanne more than made up for it. Suzanne explains that her mother couldn’t always make it to the races, so she would frequently travel with the Snaiths, and Sue in particular, for Flaming Rock’s big races. “Sue used to do a lot of work with the durban string. We were very good friends, so I’d often go up and stay over when Flaming Rock ran. I went to all the Schweppes and was around for a lot of his races. I used to ride work for the Snaiths. Sue and I used to ride all the horses and go to the dunes – it was fun! and I used to ride in the ladies races.”
Shirley’s racing exploits soon led to an interest in breeding. While she originally kept her breeding stock with derek Southey at The Valley Stud, she’d always wanted her own farm and chris Snaith helped her find two adjoining wine farms just outside Wellington. She named it arc-en-ciel as a nod to their Rainbow chickens enterprise. Jan mantel (now running his own operation in Robertson under the millstream banner) helped build the stud where Shirley’s star, Flaming Rock eventually retired for stud du-ties. although he never made it as a commercial stallion, he lived out the rest of his days at arc-en-ciel and is buried at a marked grave under one of the great oaks.
The Pfeiffer KidIt is a little-known fact, that Shirley helped establish and devel-
op the aRO programme with charles Faull and the Form Organi-sation. charles says, “One of the reasons I love racing is that there are people like Shirley in the sport and I count her alongside the grande dames of the Sa Turf. She was a wonderful, wonderful woman and we were great friends. I called her the ‘Pfeiffer Kid’.
at the time that Tecla bluff won the July, Form had been in touch with mr Lilienfeld to find out whether there were any mares or fillies of the family that could be bought. “Lilienfeld gave us two names, one of which was a mare named Luz Tel. When Tecla bluff won, I phoned Shirley and said ‘Kid, I’ve got a helluva mare for you. Shirley said ‘I’m in’. When it came to mating her, I advised Singh, but her other advisers said ‘no, you’ll be breeding a plank to a plank’. Nevertheless, Shirley took my advice and the result was bluffing.”
“Shirley sold him at auction and he was the last lot of his year at the National Sales. I asked mr Lilienfeld to look at him and he loved him. he was a tall, backward yearling who would take time, but he advised Graham beck to buy him. Graham sat around and there was hardly anyone around by the time the horse walked through the ring and he bought him on Lilienfeld’s advice, so the story went full circle,” he says with satisfaction. unfortunately he was involved in that tragic transport accident with millard and lost an eye, but still went on to do good things.”
Changeas a young girl, I saw my first live cover at arc-en-ciel and
although the details are lost in the mists of time, I still remember the awe and hushed tones in which the stud was mentioned and the sense of occasion I felt driving through the gates, that bright, sunny day.
l o u w f l y e r
SPORTING POST • ThuRSday 8 decembeR 2016 8
years pass and things change. When Shirley passed away, although neither Suzanne nor her brother were particularly passionate about racing, they continued the stud in their moth-er’s memory with the help of craig carey. however, after three decades the racing and breeding game was substantially different to when they’d started out and with the stud not holding its own in terms of commercial success, Suzanne decided to close the doors in 2013.
New rainbowshowever, far from closing down, arc-en-ciel simply reinvented
itself. What I didn’t realise, that day in my childhood, was that the breeding barn I saw, was merely a tiny slice of the farm. arc-en-ciel in fact comprises two farms, as Shirley wisely purchased a higher lying adjoining farm for its water.
When I finally returned, on the most gorgeous boland spring day with ‘plaasvolk’ out in force collecting waterblommetjies and street vendors offering armfuls of arum lilies, there was much that was familiar in the gracious gate and the stately stables and admin buildings. however, safely bundled into the safari vehicle we veered right away from the stables and a short drive later found us in front of a second set of gates, tall game fencing and an altogether different landscape.
Gone the neat, tidy, post and rail fencing of my memory and in its place, equally tidy and neatly ordered (although it took my brain a little while to adjust), game camps, with a variety of – even to my untrained eye - some of the most beautiful exotic game around.
Exotic gameSuzanne’s husband, Fernando explains that what started out
as a small enterprise of introducing game onto the farm for their own enjoyment, has evolved into a rare game breeding operation with the addition of exotic, and exotic coloured, game species. Perhaps more importantly / conveniently, it is the first of its kind this close to cape Town. One side of the farm contains the exotic and commercial animals, inclu-ding buffalo, bontebok, sable and roan antelope, black and white springbok, ‘standard’ as well as golden oryx, wildebeest and their golden variant, waterbuck, red hartebeest, eland and giraffe.
On one of the highest points of our drive, Suzanne points out a special area where Shirley and Suzanne’s brother both lie buried, with a bird’s eye view of the farm and out across the valley. as the two were somewhat quarrelsome during life, Suzanne has diplomatically buried Shirley’s favourite doberman between them to keep the peace in the afterlife.
crossing over to the other side of the farm, we were treated to more wildebeest and, fascinatingly, a small herd of kwagga (yes, I also did a double take, but there is a breeding programme to try and re-establish this once extinct animal). being given a guided tour by the Rueda’s and farm manager Schutz marais was a rare treat as they talked us through the metamorphosis of the farm, the trials and tribulations of getting set up for game, acquiring stock of the requisite genetic and aesthetic standards and the fact that they are proving even more successful than they dared hope at breeding game in an area where these animals are not supposed to thrive. There are many challenges, with routine veterinary work being just one as animals need to be rounded up (no small challenge on 1000 hectares) and darted, but as with most things, it is a case of careful management and the team are making steady progress. Numbers will soon be at a level where
they can start selling commercially and they are also collaborating with neighbouring estates to offer exclusive game drives.
HighlightPerhaps the highlight of the trip (although it feels awfully disloy-
al to choose one incredibly beautifully exotic animal over anoth-er) was the orphan buffalo bull calf, ben. abandoned by his moth-er, ben had to be fostered by one of the local Jersey herd. despite the fact that buffalo are notoriously temperamental, a calf is a calf and for anyone who has grown up on a farm, the temptation to poke your fingers through the fence and talk to the ‘baby’ (even though he is bigger than his adoptive mom) was simply irresisti-ble. I can safely vouch that there is little to match the experience of having your fingers sucked by a baby buffalo!
back through the game entrance, we detoured via the old stable block and stopped to pay our respects at Flaming Rock’s grave. although the stables are empty, they are neatly kept and there are still a few of the stud’s treasured old matrons living out their days in the grassy stud paddocks. having focussed most of their energies on setting up the game areas over the past few years, Suzanne says that the stables are still on their ‘to do’ list, but the farm is not done with horses yet. Suzanne and Fernando’s daughter Tamara is a keen horsewoman and although she did not inherit her grandmother’s love of racing, she did inherit her de-termination and competitive spirit and is successfully making her way up the South african show-jumping ranks. With a number of very smart horses in her string, it is nice to know there will be horses at arc-en-ciel for many years to come.
and for anyone who is bold enough to secure the winning bid on Saturday, I can guarantee an experience that will last a lifetime.
The Tellytrack debate has raged for years, but with Rob Scott at the helm, a new digital channel and other innovations, we decided to take a look at what the Tellytrack experience feels like from the couch from someone who knows both sides of the camera – Martin Locke.
“I woke up at 3.30am as I always so on special classic Grade 1
race days, itching to read through my Weekend Sporting Post, as I have done for decades. The cape Fillies Guineas is the first Gr1 of the magnificent Summer of champions which always brings the good horses, trainers and jockeys to cape Town in force and Saturday offered an exceptionally high quality card. There was an 800m scurry for the first local juveniles launching their careers, horse of the year Igugu’s sister (who won her first start impressively) stepping out in race 3, a smorgasbord of excellence in the Gr2 Green Point Stakes, an exceptionally high quality field for the Fillies Guineas and an excellent line-up in the cape merchants (albeit with the sad scratching of Red Ray). Truly a day to get the racing juices flowing and I couldn’t wait for the TV coverage to start.
Whetting the appetite – or not ! TellyTrack’s first crack of the whip was Superbets, which hit
the airwaves at 8am. Promising young alistair cohen completely lost control of his panel of guests who spent far too much time discussing the boil on Rod mccurdy’s back (was this really the time to announce it had burst? Suddenly my porridge looked rather unappetising!), the sex probe into british Soccer and each others hair do’s (what was left of them….). a pity that knowl-edgeable racing experts are so easily side-tracked, but thank goodness for the quick witted Gary and down to earth Liam who saved the day and got things back on track.
By contrast, Under Starters Orders was a superb hour, pro-fessionally disseminating pertinent guidance for the day ahead. Stan elley chaired a very informative preview with Jono Snaith and another young star of the future, Justin Vermaak (currently attending the hong Kong International Race Week by invitation of the hong Kong Jockey club).
back to the big day and what struck me most of all was the behind the scene efforts of dieter Wolberg’s team, the dramat-ic changes they have made to the overall look of the channel,
colorful captions, Graphics and layouts. The amount of infor-mation required to please the Punter for a race day is almost an impossible task, but give credit where credit’s due, there has been a huge improvement.
however, how would TT cope with the challenge of trying to juggle multiple meetings at Ke-nilworth, Turffontein, champs de
mars and borrowdale? and with international fare added into the mix as well, they faced an unenviable task.
The view from the sofa Time for race 1. With The big T, champs de mars and borrow-
dale fighting for airtime and cedric in the studio rushing madly through things, they crossed to Vicky and Grant with 3 minutes to spare. The first of the afternoon was a field of 8 juvenile first timers and Vicky smartly disseminated stable comments. Sadly, the fabulous sighting of the new babies that I was so looking for-ward to, never materialised, but the day couldn’t have got off to a better start than a debut win for a daughter of horse chestnut, arguably the best horse to run in South africa.
Races from out of town had to be squeezed in again and it was interesting / annoying that borrowdale got as much or should I say as little as Kenilworth! also, somewhat curiously, only the tote odds for the current race are displayed on screen, as opposed to the form a few weeks ago where they would show tote odds for two races at a time. What that meant in practice is that the feature race tote information got only 7 mins coverage! however, we pressed on.
Race 2 was a work rider’s race which Stan elley previewed with craig du Plooy, who runs the cape Work Rider programme. craig delivered a first class report and had something to say about every single carded rider, including a useful tip about the eventual winner. Really good! and compliments to andile Ndlebe who rode a very good race!
As race 3 loomed, things got congested as Turffontein’s 5th race had 9 mins to go so there was no time for much of a preview of Kenilworth’s Race 3. We got interviews with aldo domeyer and Grant van Niekerk, obviously pre-recorded at the stables at an undetermined date during the week. as it turned out, aldo was bullish about his chances on the aussie import, Ngaga (the half sister to Igugu) and rode a terrific race to win by a neck, but with no live on-course interviews with trainers or riders, I was getting worried about the magnificent racing that was to come. We were also yet to see any horses in the parade ring, but I was confident the Producer must have a plan!
SPORTING POST • ThuRSday 8 decembeR 2016 10
For race 4, Jehan called the field down to the start with 8 minutes to the off. again, we got pre-recorded interviews with Greg cheyne and Grant Van Niekerk – both of whom are good val-ue – and Stan and Grant Knowles had a few minutes to compare some meaningful form. With the field including a R4 million and a R3.2 million horse, I was dying to get a peep at these two - sure-ly with Fiona Ramsden on hand, the roving camera could have been put to better use than the ladies tent? Things got hectic here with split screens for two international races running at the same time, but sadly, sans commentary on either. up at Turffon-tein, the likeable alston, who has been thrown in at the deep end again, darted around like Nico Rosberg in an F1 final, but at least he managed to secure a few live jockey interviews.
With 13 minutes to the off of race 5, we finally got some coverage from the parade ring, but not what we were looking for. With the camera trained firmly on Grant Knowles, he hurried-ly covered the horses parading in the background, but there were no accompanying interviews with any of the connections. after Grant’s mad rush, the horses cantered past, followed – rather bizarrely - by about two minutes of silence as we were treated to the sight of the horses walking off into the distance. Then we had a pre-recorded fashion insert from Vicky minott, followed by another pre-recorded interview with aldo domeyer, again leaving little time for her and Grant to deliver much in the way of a mean-ingful preview. It all felt a little jumbled and chaotic.
Ahead of race 6, I took the liberty of pouring a small libation in anticipation of seeing horse of the year Legal eagle from the farm of my late special friend Tony Taberer, Triple crown champ abashiri and last season’s 3yo sensation marinaresco, but instead we cut to Grant at his seat in the parade ring again, before being offered a few seconds of side-on footage of the canter down before the horses passed the point of no return and we were left with a view of their rapidly disappearing hindquarters. I com-plained about the position of the canter down camera back in my heyday, but two decades later, we still have the same problem. Fortunately the race itself dished up the promised spectacle with anton marcus at his brilliant best on Legal eagle, fending off a de-termined attack from marinaresco who was closing like a runaway train. at least we got a post race interview, but sadly Fiona’s mic wasn’t cooperating so most of that was lost.
With the Fillies Guineas next on the agenda, our production crew found time for a promo for a forthcoming St Lawrence children’s haven race day in Gauteng. a magnificently crafted promotion for a wonderful and most worthy cause to be sure, but as it seems to have been flighted at the expense of showing the fillies in the parade ring, surely a more sensible slot could have been found?
also, if I may digress for a moment, it’s all very well to inter-view sponsors on big days, but if it has to be ahead of the day’s features, could we please make sure they have something mean-ingful to contribute about the racing? In my day, the focus had to be the stars of the show – the runners, riders and trainers only – no peripheral frippery and sponsors Rothmans and Vodacom were allowed the grand total of three mentions on the Sabc for the entire day!
With the highly anticipated cape Fillies Guineas about to be run, I was chewing my nails in frustration as the Green Point Stakes post-race interviews dragged on. While it is great to hear from the connections, these should really be tightened up so that the programme can move along timeously to the next race
(particularly when it is the day’s highlight). This unfortunate lack of control, saw everything concertina-ing to the detriment of punters and viewers at home and as a net (and highly prevent-able) result, the most important race of the day suffered. again no parade ring coverage and no live pre-race interviews. missing the Fillies in the ring was killing me and the eventual consolation prize of seeing their backsides receding into the distance after the canter past was no solace. but again, at least the race delivered in no uncertain terms and with an informative (LIVe!!) post-race break down from anton, cleverly elicited by Fiona and her tem-peramental roving mic – left us with much to look forward to over the coming season.
So to the last feature of the day, the World Sports Betting Cape Merchants, which offered a truly magnificent field of 19 super fliers. Would TT at last feature them in the Parade Ring? Would they, hell. One doesn’t want to go on about this, but at this moment in time we are in the enviable position of having some of the greatest racehorses and bloodstock in the world. In addition to that, we are spoilt in having a tremendous breadth and depth of talent in both our jockey and training ranks – yet they hardly featured at the meeting!
Firmly pouring a large glass of Klein Zalze Sauvignon blanc, I abandoned any hope of guidance from our haphazard production team and settled back to simply revel in the real stars of the day, the Thoroughbreds. The fantastic racing carried the day, so a big thank you to Tellytrack for at least covering that.
The Full Statistics online http://www.sportingpost.co.za/horse-racing-statistics/ *Stallion dead or Retired **Stallion Not Standing in RSA **Breeding operations not based in RSA - Statistics for Breeders & Sires reflect All earnings, incl. restricted races & handicap races
The Ascot Stud-bred Search Party became the outstanding Al Mufti stallion Captain Al’s 74th individual stakes winner when he went from gun to tape to win the Gr2 Cape Merchants at Kenilworth on Saturday.a winner of 9 races
from 1000m to a mile, captain al won the cape merchants in 2000. Search Party was his 3rd winner of this race after his daughter dance With al (2010) and cap alright (2012).
The 2015 equus champion Sire has been champion sire of 2yos for the past eight years running.
Captain Of the heart
The Full Statistics online http://www.sportingpost.co.za/horse-racing-statistics/ *Stallion dead or Retired **Stallion Not Standing in RSA **Breeding operations not based in RSA - Statistics for Breeders & Sires reflect All earnings, incl. restricted races & handicap races
LEADING SIRES of 3yO’S by STAKES season 2016/2017 • 1 August - 4 December 2016
Stakes Sire rnrs AEPR runs wnrs wns wnr/ SW SW SW/ plcs plc/ SP top earner with stakes rnr% wnrs wns wnr% rns% & % of total stakes
LEADING SIRES by STAKES season 2016/2017 • 1 August - 4 December 2016 Stakes Sire rnrs AEPR runs wnrs wns wnr/ SW SW SW/ plcs plc/ SP top earner with stakes rnr% wnrs wns wnr% rns% & % of total stakes
TRAINERJust Sensual’s win in Satur-day’s cape Fillies Guineas was a feather in her trainer Joey Ramsden’s cap. de-spite tough opposition and a bad draw, JR knew what he had and took the leap from a handicap to Gr1 with her. did it work! The 48yo former cape champi-on has a lifetime of equine
experience to draw on – from Kenilworth to Kentucky and Southwell to Sydney, he’s been there and done it.
JOCKEymultiple east cape cham-pion jockey Greg cheyne boasts a best ever national log placing of 3rd be-hind Gavin Lerena in the 2014/15 season. The 40yo heads the latest national log this week, tying on 60 winners with past champ, andrew Fortune. could this be Greg’s season? he has already conceded that he has ‘the best job in Sa
racing’ with alan Greeff in Port elizabeth. So no excuses then...
JOCKEy-TRAINER COMBO’Sdennis drier has always had a top stable jock. Glyn Schofield, Sean cormack and alec Forbes are three that come to mind. Sean Veale has risen to the challenge and had another good winner with The high Life at Kenilworth on Tuesday. The KZN power pair boast a 20% win strike-rate currently and while the
feature hits have been tough to find recently, their for-tunes could change with promising 3yo anime in the Gr2 Southern cross Stakes at Kenilworth on Saturday.
FOLLOW US
R a c i n g T o W i n
Joey Ramsden – no frills and one of the best judges in the game
Greg Cheyne – making a serious bid for an SA champion title
Dennis Drier and sean Veale
cannot be written off with
seven weeks left of the Cape
Summer Of Champions
LEADING TRAINERS by STAKESseason 2016/2017 • 1 August - 4 December 2016
action every day on the Sporting Post website www.sportingpost.co.za
b r e e d i n g
Brotherly LoveThere have been more than a few full brothers enjoying success at stud – Diesis and Kris (Sharpen Up), Graustark and His Maj-esty (Ribot), Sadler’s Wells and Fairy King (Northern Dancer). In 2016, several full and half brothers made their mark in major races around the world.
Deep Impact and Black TideJapanese Triple crown winning champion deep Impact (Sun-
day Silence) dominated the Japanese General Sires List this year, with 25 individual stakes winners. his 3yo’s have captured all of Japan’s classic races for colts. deep Impact, whose son mikki Island won the G1 mile championship for a second time this year,
was also represented by the international G1 winners Real Steel (dubai Turf) and a Shin hikari (Prix d’Ispahan), joint-fourth top rated on the Longines World’s best Racehorses Rankings. career-wise deep Impact has 90 stakes winners to his credit, his progeny having wracked up some $398 million in stakes. Full
brother black Tide also enjoyed his moment in the sun, thanks to the deeds of his G1 Japan cup winning son Kitasan black. deep Impact and black Tide are currently 1st and 12th on Japan’s General Sires List.
Urban Sea & sons Prix de l’arc de Triomphe winner urban Sea (miswaki) enjoyed
an all but unique epsom double in 2016 when her sons Galileo (Sadler’s Wells) and Sea The Stars (cape cross) were responsible for the Investec sponsored classic winners minding (Oaks) and harzand (derby). The world’s premier sire Galileo enjoyed a superb season even by his own remarkable standards, crowned with the 1-2-3 of his offspring Found, highland Reel and Order Of St George filling the first three places in the arc. his progeny of the great sire (who has claims to being the number one in history) won a staggering 24 Gr1 races this season. Galileo’s son Frankel got off to a great start with his first 2yo runners, yielding group winners Fair eva, Frankuus, Queen Kindly, Toulifaut, and the impressive Japanese filly mi Suerte. Galileo’s half brother Sea The Stars enjoyed another excellent sea-son, his offspring including Prix Jean Prat hero Zelzal amid a total of 14 stakes winners in 2016. Galileo and Sea The Stars finished 1st and 4th on the british General Sires List. They were not the only sons of urban Sea to make their mark, as the first crop of Irish derby runner-up born To Sea (Invincible
Spirit) included Gr3 winner Sea Of Grace and stakes performers born To be and Star Of Rory.
Invincible Spirit and KodiacFrench Oaks winner Rafha (Kris) left a legacy with her sons
Invincible Spirit (Green desert by danzig) and Kodiac (danehill by danzig). The duo enjoyed yet another great season, with the Irish National Stud resident Invincible Spirit’s stakes winners including Gr1 winners National defense (Prix Jean Luc Lagardere) and Signs Of blessing (Prix maurice de Gheest). a consistently excellent sire, whose French derby winning son Lawman got 2016 St Leger winner harbour Law, Invincible Spirit is also responsible for red-hot australian sire I am Invincible and horse Of The year Kingman (a 3-part brother to Oasis dream). Kodiac has long been established as a top class sire of 2yo’s, among them the brilliant filly Tiggy Wiggy. The son of danehill once again came to the party with his juveniles this year through ardad (Gr2 Flying childers Stakes), Prince Of Lir (Gr2 Norfolk Stakes) and best Solution (autumn Stakes). Kodiac is a rags to riches success story in the Irish stallion ranks, having started his career at a fee of £5000.
- Sarah Whitelaw
KZN Breeders Awards - Outstanding Winners of 20162yO cOLT Misty Birnam - mr & mrs aW Procter2yO FILLy Dawn Calling - mr & mrs aW Procter3yO cOLT Rabada - Summerhill Stud3yO FILLy Heaps Of Fun - Summerhill StudOLdeR maLe Talktothestars - Scott brosOLdeR FemaLe Kwinta - Kjell FoundationSPRINTeR maLe Talktothestars - Scott brosSPRINTeR FemaLe Kwinta - Kjell FoundationmIddLe dISTaNce maLe Rabada - Summerhill StudmIddLe dISTaNce FemaLe Heaps Of Fun - Summerhill StudSTayeR maLe & FemaLe Arch Rival - Summerhill StudbROOdmaRe OF The yeaR Tellitothestars - Scott brosSTaLLION OF The yeaR Kahal - Shadwell StudbReedeRS achIeVemeNT aWaRd Anton ProcterLeadING bReedeR OF The yeaR Summerhill StudLIFeTIme achIeVemeNT aWaRd Alan and Vera SutherlandaNITa aKaL INduSTRy aWaRd Ken TwortKZN bReedeRS hORSe OF The yeaR Talktothestars
Deep Impact - dominated the Japanese General Sires List
Music to the Ears avontuur Farm’s stallion Oratorio has sired runners with
earnings over $47 million internationally, including more than 70 black type performers. a former european champion and triple Gr1 winner, the son of danehill to date has eight indi-vidual Gr1 winners to his credit. much is therefore expected from his first Sa-crop, now 2yo’s.
Success couldn’t have come quicker. at Fairview, Sacred Oration cruised home to win the very first maiden Juvenile Plate of the season. The 2yo colt is bred by Patricia devine out of Giant’s causeway mare Scarlet causeway.
Apple of Sean’s EyeSouth africa lost an outstanding brood-
mare with the recent passing of Golden apple.
Trainer Sean Tarry paid tribute to his former classic winner, saying “She was the first graded winner I trained, and Golden apple and her progeny have played a real-ly big role in my career. her progeny came in all shapes and sizes, with Pomodoro be-ing one of the bigger ones. Golden apple was a once in a lifetime mare for me.”
a smart performer at two (when she was placed in the Gr2 mcIntosh Fillies classic and debutante Stakes), Golden apple won or placed in 11 of her 19 outings. She got her biggest win in the Gosforth Park Fillies Guineas, accounting for high class La de-portista and Ruby clipper. all three went on to make their mark at stud.
Retired to stud, Golden apple quickly proved as capable in the paddocks as she was on the racetrack. To date, her eight winners (from as many runners) have won 34 races and over R5.8 million in prize money. She was voted South africa’s
broodmare Of The year in 2012. among her winners is Tarry’s first July winner Po-modoro. One of the best of his generation, the versatile Pomodoro won from 1160m to 2450m. apart from the July he won the Sa derby, and placed in four other Gr1 races, including the Queen’s Plate and Sa classic.
Pomodoro now stands at Klawervlei, where his first foals are yearlings.
Golden apple’s last two foals are fillies by Silvano and Twice Over, and with older half sisters to those by Western Winter and Trippi, the matron’s legacy looks secure.
Behind the numbersWhen it comes to first-timers a little knowledge goes a long way – or does it? The daily reports from trainers commenting on their first-timers
attracts plenty of attention from punters hoping to benefit from added knowledge. Surprisingly, there has been little interest in measuring the value of the added information, to see if it gives real benefits or not.
Time then to dig around for facts, and look at numbers, espe-cially with the new crop of 2yo’s about to start racing and plenty of first-timers to come.
What follows is a summary of the 2015/16 season, from 1 august 2015 to 31 July 2016. The data makes for interesting reading, if nothing else.
There were 1341 first-time 3yo’s during the period, of which 81 won.The winners have been listed with their trainers, opening odds
and starting price.For ease of reading, they have been grouped: trainers with one
first-time winner, with two, with three and with more.One relevant issue in this context is to imagine how the trainers
would have commented on these first-timers, and whether punters could have benefitted – or not. another issue is whether the market is a suitable indicator of chances.
ONCE (3yo’s) Ramsden chevauchee 12/10 1/1 Goosen haddington 4/1 11/10 Kruyer mission control 22/10 13/10 cLaird What a Poet 12/10 2/1 Vos Trip to India 4/1 2/1 Soma Submergence 5/2 22/10 Peter Noah’s ark 7/1 5/2 Whitehead Free State 33/1 33/10 Niewenhuizen Kilauea 2/1 7/2 howells Skyfire 4/1 4/1 Zaki Leila’s charger 7/1 4/1 drier cosmic burst 4/1 9/2 Gordon monte christo 12/1 11/2 binda evening breeze 16/1 11/2 Forbes Lobelia 12/1 6/1 Sham Stir It up 11/2 13/2 bass moonlight ‘n Roses 10/1 8/1 Wiese Willow Wing 50/1 8/1 Naidoo deep down Rebel 25/1 9/1 v Vuuren Readyforyourlove 28/10 10/1 Wiid Rock on Rebel 4/1 10/1 magner captain Leon 7/1 10/1 Sands hanabi 12/1 16/1 Kannemeyer mountain boy 7/1 20/1 Smith brooke’s montana 12/1 20/1 GR Puller Illuminator 20/1 25/1 Kotzen Silvan Star 16/1 33/1 bruss argun 20/1 50/1 mayhew Over It 20/1 55/1
TWICE (3yo’s) miller exclusive Power 7/2 7/10 Serval 8/1 25/1 Verdonese Tommy Waterdevil 12/1 14/10 The Smell of Rain 8/1 7/2 campbell Var du bois 5/1 18/10 Strummer 11/2 6/1 Rivalland Spanish captain 5/1 15/4 Global Flyer 5/1 10/1 G v Zyl Superwoman 5/1 6/1 Spirituous 14/1 6/1 alexander crystal Glamour 8/1 6/1 duke Nukem 4/1 7/1 Nel Quine 7/1 8/1 captain’s Flame 14/1 8/1 moffatt I am the Fire 20/1 50/1 Rebuked 20/1 66/1
THREE TIMES (3yo’s) Snaith bela-bela 16/10 18/10 Francia 5/1 28/10 It’s my Turn 9/2 6/1 Woodruff captain Nemo 18/10 22/10 Val et al 4/1 7/2 Swazi Lily 14/1 33/1 Greeff Night Out 16/1 5/2 Ngong hills 6/1 11/2 enhidu 5/1 8/1 bcrawford Sunset breeze 5/1 8/1 Groen Gevaarte 6/1 12/1 make it Raine 20/1 25/1
MORE (3yo’s) de Kock Noor 4/1 13/20 Noah from Goa 5/2 7/10 Perfumed Lady 6/1 15/20 b Twenty One 8/10 13/10 Rozenna 12/10 18/10 Tarry Never Give In 3/1 14/10 Seeking Venus 22/10 16/10 Lunar approach 4/1 22/10 Sister cosmos 14/1 7/1 casey can 20/1 14/1 Fieldmarshall Fenix 14/1 40/1 houdalakis Speedy Gonvarlez 5/1 16/10 Firstimesacharm 12/1 3/1 Super-u 5/2 9/2 Russian Steward 14/1 33/1 aLaird Polyphonic 4/1 2/1 hollie Point 5/1 5/2 Qarman 3/1 10/1 Nitrogen 7/1 10/1 azzie Tycoon chief 10/1 9/2 Penny Serenade 6/1 5/1 Shatoosh 12/1 6/1 dealer’s charm 11/2 12/1 Jungle mist 10/1 20/1
There were 1180 first-time 2yo starters, of which 96 won. Nine of the winners were in december (from nine 2yo races in to-tal), and nine in January (from 15 races in total) – not unexpectedly.
ONCE (2yo’s) hill Red chesnut Road 8/1 17/10 Wright diamond In The Sky 12/10 5/2 Niewenhuizen hamunaptra 15/20 3/1 Kannemeyer Last Winter 28/10 4/1 Naidoo Over Sure 6/1 9/2 Gadsby Gunner 16/1 8/1 Ferreira aggressive 9/1 9/1 hodgson Primrose Lane 25/1 10/1 bremner candy crush 10/1 14/1 Warren Sporting monarch 33/1 16/1 Stewart blazing Rebel 8/1 20/1 botes Jiffy 14/1 20/1 Gmaroun Wrecking ball 14/1 25/1 Roberts caddy master 25/1 33/1 bcrawford argo Solo 25/1 55/1
TWICE (2yo’s) marshall The Secret Is Out 8/10 4/10 cape Quarter 25/1 25/1 GvZyl mygirldownunder 2/1 9/10 Poster Girl 28/10 13/10 Smith cuveo 4/1 28/10 besotted 18/10 22/10 Peter hideaway 7/1 3/1 heaven’s door 12/1 10/1 magner macademia 8/1 33/10 comme-ci-comme-ca 10/1 15/4 miller Rob’s Jewel 4/1 7/2 call me Winter 5/1 11/20 Lerasmus he’s a Var 4/1 5/1 approval mode 8/1 14/1 howells a Womens Way 7/1 11/2 Secret captain 5/1 16/1 Ramsden miranda Frost 20/1 11/2 don’t Stop dancing 7/1 6/1 vVuuren Green Pepper 12/1 7/1 The Thinker 8/1 16/1 Kotzen South Side 14/1 11/1 anneline 12/1 20/1
THREE TIMES (2yo’s) Goosen effortless Reward 5/1 1/1 hashtag Strat 16/1 8/1 bonnie dawn 16/1 14/1
MORE (2yo’s) deKock al hawraa 1/3 1/5 ebtihaal 4/10 5/10 daqeeq 16/10 9/10 bold Rex 7/10 1/1 Zaakhira 28/10 1/1 heavenly blue 18/10 11/10 act Of Loyalty 8/10 16/10 Intriguing Lady 11/10 18/10 Navarro 15/10 22/10 coyote 33/10 7/1 cLaird Spice Girl 11/10 5/10 yankeedoodledandy 3/1 4/1 Good to Give 18/10 11/2 Rockefeller 7/2 11/2 Palladium 7/1 5/1 buffalo Soldier 2/1 7/1 Tarry cloth of cloud 6/10 11/20 Safe harbour 2/1 1/1 Red Rock 3/1 14/10 Rightful King 4/1 15/10 Touching 28/10 16/10 africa Rising 6/1 2/1 Visuality 3/1 22/10 Flying myth 18/10 5/2 Kahula 5/1 4/1 myfunnyvalentine 3/1 9/2 Water Lily Lake 3/1 5/1 exquisite Touch 4/1 5/1 bold Viking 5/1 12/1 Snaith Soweto moon 15/20 7/10 Var ahead 11/20 15/20 Sergeant hardy 12/10 8/10 Le harve 4/1 5/2 The merry Widow 18/10 33/10 Nordic breeze 7/1 10/1 Zodiac Ruler 9/2 14/1 azzie Star burst Galaxy 2/1 11/10 Rivarine 15/10 5/2 Querari Falcon 7/2 7/2 Shebang 16/1 40/1 Spies Fresh 18/10 12/10 Lady Willow 3/1 4/1 Lotus elan 8/1 5/1 bonne Vie 7/1 20/1 bass Wakeup maggie 22/10 18/10 Tipping Point 5/1 9/2 bombs away 9/2 10/1 Our mate art 7/1 10/1 drier La Revere 3/1 22/10 horse Guards 5/1 28/10 Wild Irish 7/1 15/4 hack Green 7/1 16/1 Greeff Oomph 15/10 17/10 beatabouthtebush 12/10 18/10 Green Lantern 7/2 4/1 emmypot 16/1 16/1
The best advice? Watch the betting, ignore all else.
f i r S t t i m e r S
One of the big plunges of the year:
Red Chesnut Road wins on debut,
backed from 8/1 into 17/10. He won the
Gr3 Godolphin Barb next time out by
6 lengths at odds-on, but was not seen
out again | Gold circle
action every day on the Sporting Post website www.sportingpost.co.za
Oh So SensualThe race was a genuine test of national fillies’ strength, but it was a recent low-key handicap winner who jumped from a wide draw and swooped late to score – despite a self professed ‘marginal’ ride by anton marcus. as the race leader slowed the pace dramatically around the bend, mar-cus made the crucial decision to loop his field to get a position more forward of the hopeless berth the filly held early after her wide draw launch. at the 250m marker it looked to be Safe harbour’s race, but mar-cus had timed it perfectly to get up late.The winner, owned by mayfair Specula-tors, is bred by Klawervlei Stud. She’s by dynasty out of the Gr1 Golden Slipper winner consensual (by camden Park), who raced out of the mike bass yard and was Sa’s 2008 champion 2yo filly. Just Sensual sold for R2 million at the cape Premier yearling Sale. She took her win tally to 3 with 1 place from 4 starts and stakes of R727.500.Gr1 Cape Fillies Guineas 1600m
Winner Just Sensual was positioned 3rd last entering bend; circled runners on turn; 6th entering straight; ran on well Runner up Safe Harbour raced 5th ran on strongly with winner in straight to be narrow-ly beaten Querari Falcon raced 4th; led 200m; out-paced latter stages by first two Time: Second fastest of 3 x 1600m races, but over 3 seconds slower than the Gr2 Green Point Stakes. This was a false run race, where after a fast beginning (on par with the pace of Green Point Stakes), the leader dramatically slowed things up on the bend. The result and ratings should be treated with caution. We gave the 4th placed runner Sail (prev
b l a c K t y P e r e S u l t S
kENILwORth (new course) saturday, 3 december
Course Variant: 0.98s slow (straight)0.24s fast (bend)
With a south easterly head wind in excess of 30km per hour, the times of races down
the straight were comparatively much slower than those around the turn.
Gr2 Green Point S. R400,000
Eagle Swoopshorse Of The year Legal eagle set himself up for a l’Ormarins Queen’s Plate double in a thrilling finish to a high-class true run race. Sail South set a solid pace through-out, followed by stable mate captain america, with helderberg blue in third, just ahead of New Predator and Legal eagle in the eight horse field. marcus brought Legal eagle through the centre halfway up the straight and looked to be going on to win convincingly. In the end it was a close call, as marinaresco finished very strongly late to get within half a length at the line. captain america could do no better than third, 4 lengths back and hanging under pressure.Racing for mayfair Speculators, the avon-tuur-bred Legal eagle has now won 8 races with 4 places from 14 starts for stakes of R6.085.375. by Vodacom durban July winner Greys Inn, he is out of the six-time winning National emblem mare young Sensation, and was bought by Sean Tarry for R425.000 at the 2013 National yearling Sale.Gr2 Green Point Stakes 1600m
Winner Legal Eagle raced 5th; led 200m; kept on strongly Runner up Marinaresco raced 6th, 3 lengths behind winner; ran on very well in straight Third Captain America raced 2nd; led 250m; shifted towards middle of track under pres-sure and no chance with first two Time: This was by far the fastest of the three 1600m races, more than 3 seconds quicker than the second fastest on the day, the Gr1 Fillies Guineas. The pace was fast through-out, set by Captain America’s stable com-panion Sail South. Not an easy race to rate. We gave the 3rd (prev 107/112/97/106/94/111) 104 which makes the winner (prev 113/113/113/113/97) 116 and the 2nd (prev 94/98/106/105/100) 116.
116 1 0.00 LegaL eagLe (3) 60.0 A Marcus 1/1 5 b g Greys Inn - Young Sensation (National Emblem)
Bloodstock SA Nat - 425k116 2 0.40 Marinaresco (6) 60.0 G v Niekerk 7/2 4 b g Silvano - Gay Fortuna (Fort Wood)
MAuritzfontein GraduateBloodstock SA Nat - 1.3million
104 3 4.65 captain aMerica (1) 59.0 C Orffer 9/1 6 b g Captain Al - Requista (Fort Wood)
Bloodstock SA Nat - 400k95 4 7.90 Sail South (7) 58.0 R Fourie 15/1 96 5 9.15 Abashiri (8) 60.0 A Delpech 22/1 88 6 11.90 New Predator (2) 59.0 G Lerena 12/1 61 7 24.40 Black Arthur (4) 59.0 P Strydom 13/1 38 8 33.65 Helderberg Blue (5) 58.0 A Domeyer 66/1 time: 96.92s (60.58s avg/1000m, or 59km/h) sp total %: 109%1st t:SG Tarry o:Mayfair Speculators (Pty) Ltd (Nom: Mr D L Brugman) B:Avontuur Farm
91/92/92/96) 92 which makes the win-ner (prev 67/78/84) 99, the runner up (prev 90/84/80/93) 99 and the 3rd (prev 84/93/106/106) 92
99 1 0.00 Just sensuaL (12) 60.0 A Marcus 11/2 3 b f Dynasty - Consensual (Camden Park)
99 2 0.30 safe HarBour (2) 60.0 Wei Marwing 8/1 3 b f Elusive Fort - Saint Isidore (Rakeen) 92 3 3.55 Querari faLcon (3) 60.0 A Delpech 7/2 3 b f Querari - Pretty Waves (Crimson Waves) 92 4 3.60 Sail (13) 60.0 S Veale 13/1 91 5 3.65 Lady Of the House (8) 60.0 C Orffer 66/1 91 6 4.05 Smokey Affair (11) 60.0 R Fourie 15/1 90 7 4.25 Maleficent (6) 60.0 R Simons 8/1 90 8 4.35 Final Judgement (7) 60.0 P Strydom 13/1 90 8 4.35 Captain Gambler (5) 60.0 D Dillon 66/1 88 10 5.35 Whose That Girl (10) 60.0 G v Niekerk 66/1 87 11 5.75 She’s A Giver (15) 60.0 G Lerena 7/1 86 12 6.15 Dawn Calling (4) 60.0 B Lerena 22/1 82 13 8.15 Red Light Girl (9) 60.0 A Domeyer 66/1 81 14 8.25 Quick Brown Fox (1) 60.0 G Cheyne 4/1 79 15 9.50 Visuality (14) 60.0 S Khumalo 66/1 time: 99.84s (62.4s avg/1000m, or 58km/h) sp total %: 125%1st t:J Ramsden o:Mayfair Speculators (Pty) Ltd (Nom: Mr D L Brugman) B:Klawervlei Stud
Gr1 Cape Fillies Guineas R1-million
Gr2 Cape Merchants R400,000
Search Party All The WayWith the field reduced to 17, they split into two groups, Search Party leading the smaller inside group. With ears pricked, Search Party was relishing his role out front and he never looked in danger of be-ing overwhelmed. he galloped on strongly to rebuff the late challenges to win by a half length, from Silicone Valley.a R450.000 National yearling Sale pur-chase, Search Party has now won 4 races with 5 places from 11 starts for stakes of R489.300. he’s bred by ascot Stud, by captain al out of Pennekamp mare Princess magdalena, who is half sister to horse of the year dancer’s daughter.Gr2 Cape Merchants 1200m
Winner Search Party raced with the pace throughout; ran on strongly final 400m Runner up Silicone Valley raced close up in fifth; ran on strongly to be narrowly beaten Third Captain Alfredo raced in the front half of midfield; ran onTime: by far the fastest of the four 1200m races, and 1.2s faster than the MR86 Hand-icap earlier on the day We gave the runner up (prev 86/90/95/96/103) 104 which makes the win-ner (prev 70/40/89/91/99) 96 and the third (prev 102/99/96/100/95) 98
96 1 0.00 searcH party (4) 52.0 C Orffer 7/2 4 b g Captain Al - Princess Magdalena(GB) (Pennekamp)
Bloodstock SA Nat - 450k104 2 0.50 siLicone VaLLey (6) 56.5 H vd Hoven 9/1 6 b g Jay Peg - Prize Collection (Model Man) 98 3 2.50 captain aLfredo (10) 57.0 P Strydom 18/1 5 b g Captain Al - Zooming Zellie(USA) (King of Kings)
HigHlands - Bred stakes Placed91 4 2.60 Victorious Jay (7) 54.0 M Byleveld 8/1 99 5 3.10 Tevez (14) 58.5 A Domeyer 13/1 90 6 3.15 Captain Swarovski (9) 54.5 S Khumalo 28/1 88 7 3.90 Hack Green (3) 52.0 S Veale 7/2 84 8 4.40 Ernie (11) 54.0 G v Niekerk 28/1 77 9 5.15 Orion Quest (15) 52.0 S Cele 9/1 80 10 5.90 Seventh Plain (13) 54.5 G Cheyne 13/1 79 11 6.10 Triptique (12) 54.5 R Simons 22/1 77 12 7.35 Mambo Mime (16) 55.5 D Dillon 35/1 74 13 7.85 Asstar (8) 55.0 A Forbes 40/1 66 14 9.85 Gunner (17) 52.0 L Africa 35/1 58 15 11.60 It Is Written (5) 54.0 A Andrews 100/1 59 16 11.80 Exelero (2) 54.5 R Fourie 15/1 0 17 29.80 Line Break (1) 52.0 G Wright 66/1 time: 71.59s (59.66s avg/1000m, or 60km/h) sp total %: 123%1st t:BJ Crawford o:Mrs D J Sherrell B:Ascot Stud
Just Sensual, Marcus timed it to perfection | W Marks
how horses performed in South africa’s black type races, expressed in points based on the kind of races and how far behind the winner they finished.
a full explanation of the point system and the complete list of point earners is on the Sporting Post website.
TOP EARNERS for the 2016/2017 season
(to 4 december)horse age sex points racesmaster Sabina 7 c 100 1Kangaroo Jack 4 c 75 2Just Sensual 3 f 70 1New Predator 4 c 53 2Legal eagle 5 c 50 1bezanova 6 c 50 1Search Party 4 c 50 1The conglomerate 5 c 37 1master Switch 5 c 34 1Safe harbour 3 f 32 1mella maria 4 f 30 1Singapore Sling 3 c 30 1Gold Standard 3 c 30 1ektifaa 3 f 30 1Intergalactic 4 f 30 1Nebula 4 c 25 1captain’s Flame 4 f 25 1Fortissima 4 f 25 1Green Pepper 3 f 25 1captain america 6 c 25 1Liege 4 c 21 2marinaresco 4 c 21 1Silicone Valley 6 c 20 1Saratoga dancer 5 c 19 1deo Juvente 5 c 17 1bella Sonata 4 f 13 1edict Of Nantes 3 c 11 1Polyphonic 4 f 11 1Tahini 4 f 10 1Sail 3 f 8 1Visuality 3 f 8 1bold Rex 3 c 8 1Will Pays 5 c 5 1Final Judgement 3 f 4 1heavenly blue 3 c 4 1
Secretariat Stakes (Listed) R150,000
No BullStepped up to 1400m after a recent Vaal 1200m maiden success at his third start, matador man was easy to back, but won like a horse with a future. The market was dominated by captain Von Trapp, Romi’s boy (who set a good pace) and Ready To Run cup placer act Of Loyalty. None of the three featured in the finish, with hewitson producing matador man down the inside to hold his stablemate Tilbury Fort.The Scott bros bred matador man is by Toreador out of the four-time winning mogok mare Sahara. he was signed for by Tawny Syndicate for R180.000 at the 2015 National 2yo Sale, and has now won 2 rac-es with 2 places from 4 starts, and stakes of R177.000. he also benefitted from the bSa added Value Stakes bonus of R77.500.
Secretariat Stakes (Listed) 1400m Winner Matador Man dwelt start; raced 6th; led 250m; hanging; won going away Runner up Tilbury Fort raced fifth; level with winner at 400m; outpaced latter stages; made respiratory noise Third Misty Roller raced midfield; 7th enter-ing straight; stayed on but well beaten Time: This was the faster of the two 1400m races, and 0.5s quicker than the Pinnacle Stakes won by Captain Aldo. We gave the third horse (prev 57/73) 73 which makes the winner (prev 73/73/76) 94 and the runner up (prev 63/66/74/74) 81
94 1 0.00 Matador Man (5) 56.0 L Hewitson 11/2 3 b g Toreador - Sahara (Mogok)
bred by Bloodstock SA Nat 2YO - 200k
81 2 1.75 tiLBury fort (2) 52.5 K Zechner 15/1 3 b c Horse Chestnut - Colleen (Restructure) 73 3 5.00 Misty roLLer (10) 53.5 M v Rensburg 40/1 3 b g Oracy - She’s Charming (Casey Tibbs) 72 4 7.50 Copper Pot (4) 56.5 R Danielson 7/1 70 5 7.75 Clever Guy (1) 56.0 M Yeni 15/1 69 6 8.00 Act Of Loyalty (9) 55.5 C Murray 9/2 70 7 8.50 Romi’s Boy (6) 57.0 C Maujean 4/1 68 8 9.00 Raydaveric (8) 56.5 D Habib 18/1 60 9 11.00 Captain Von Trapp (3) 55.5 C Zackey 3/1 50 10 18.00 Aggressive (7) 60.5 A Fortune 11/1 time: 85.08s (60.77s avg/1000m, or 59km/h) sp total %: 120%1st t:SG Tarry o:Messrs G D Tooch, G L Blank, G J Nassif, J Nassif, Z L Nassif, J Sarkis & R M Scott B:Scott Bros
MISSED RECENT RESULTS? Click here for a quick link to the Sporting Post website
Is Your horse one to Follow?
barak Lavan 3c (countess corlia by count dubois)Kenilworth 10 Maiden Plate 1600m (10/12)
Wish To Land 3c (Wishing chair by Giant’s causeway)Kenilworth 10 Maiden Plate 1600m (10/12)
head Prefect 3c (School assembly by National assembly)Kenilworth 10 Maiden Plate 1600m (10/12)
uncle Ronnie 2c (Wild Woman by al mufti)Scottsville 1 Maiden Juvenile Plate 800m (11/12)
dino’s delight 3c (borrego honey by borrego)Scottsville 3 Maiden Plate (Inside) 1400m (11/12)
TRAFFIC GUARD (More Than Ready)Rightonred 3f (Guest Gallery by Special Preview)
Vaal 2 Maiden Plate 1200m (10/12)Scholar Patrol 3c (ama de casa by Lavery)
Vaal 4 Maiden Plate 2000m (10/12)
TWICE OVER (Observatory)Lacerta 2f (Pulsator by captain al)
Kenilworth 1 Maiden Juvenile Plate (Fillies) 800m (10/12)Libra 2f (Sleek ‘n Sassy by captain al)
Kenilworth 2 Maiden Juvenile Plate 800m (10/12)
Notable Maiden WinnersSEBRINGRated AR74 ALAADEL (3c Seeking Sunshine by Seeking The Gold
Maiden Plate Vaal outside (1400m) (1/12)Another GrAduAte AUS $ 260k yearling
after losing two lengths at the start, mike de Kock’s charge had been beaten a neck by the subsequent Secretariat Stakes run-ner-up Tilbury Fort in his only previous outing. he again lost a little ground here, before running on stoutly from midfield to win well by two and three quarters. Watch for further improvement.
ANTONIUS PIUSRated AR88 KiSSABle (2f Kiss For Kate by Jallad)
Maiden Juvenile Plate Turffontein stand side (800m) (6/12)HigHlands stallion • Antonius Pius
Bloodstock SA 120k NYS - SOld tO GreeNStreet BlOOdStOck
bred by MoutonshoeKTaken straight to the front, this well supported second favourite led throughout. Just half a length clear at halfway, Kissable drew clear in good style over the final 400m and won easing down by over six lengths in good time. her rating is a bit of a flyer, but she looks to be the real deal.
SILVANORated AR 77 AL SAHEM (3c alderry by al mufti)
Maiden Plate Turffontein stand side (1600m) (3/12)always second in the betting market, Sean Tarry’s newcomer raced handy in fifth. he was ridden to lead as they approached the 100m marker, and drew clear easily to score by four and a half. he won well, and is bound to improve on his rating.
For The NotebookTIGER RIDGERated AR 83 NOTHER RUSSIA (4f mother Russia by al Windrush
MR80 Handicap (F&M) Vaal outside (1600m) (1/12)
Bloodstock SA NatiONal YearliNG Sale Graduate - 550k
Returning from an 8 month layoff, mike de Kock’s charge was said to be not fully tuned up when completing a hat-trick here. She raced in the rear early on before running on stoutly to get up close home. Nother Russia has now won three from five, and further improvement looks to be forthcoming.
CAPTAIN ALRated AR 91 WILLIAM LONGSWORD (3c Pagan Princess by Fort Wood)
MR 88 Handicap Kenilworth (1600m) (06/12)Racing handy in second, showed an impressive turn of foot to win going away.he has now won 4 from 6 starts and on this per-formance his place in next week’s cape Guineas looks assured. he’s likely to improve further on his rating.. his talented half-sis-ter Real Princess (by Trippi) runs this Saturday in the Southern cross Sprint.
KenilWoRTh (SAT)Race 1: No QualfiersRace 2: No QualifiersRace 3: (3) miss Stake 12Race 4: (1) La Favourari 62Race 5: (4) amazingly 18Race 6: (6) Party crasher 50Race 7: (4) Twinkle Toes 58Race 8: (1) carry On alice 95Race 9: (10) Rocket master 50Race 10: (8) arabian dynasty 19
vAAl (SAT)Race 1: (4) Princess aurora 10Race 2: (1) Captain Marooned 28 (NAP*)Race 3: (1) Racethegreenlight 24Race 4: (1) air Force Legend 23Race 5: (5) Star Of Love 42Race 6: (4) deputy Jud 81Race 7: (9) Pyramus 47Race 8: (5) all Over The World 53Race 9: (2) Joan Ranger 76Race 10: (1) cannes 47
SCoTTSville (Sun)Race 1: No SelectionsRace 2: (5) Scarlet Lady 10Race 3: (17) Varadiso 12Race 4: (2) dundrum16Race 5: (4) Respect At Bay 53 (nAP*)Race 6: (5) Royalsecuritypower 76Race 7: (11) Breakfast Club 74 (EW)Race 8: (10) Pirogue 74Race 9: (9) charisma 36
nap bets* Fancied ** Strongly fancied
*** Very strongly fancied
Top speed ratings for this weekend
(Ratings shown have already been adjusted to allocated weights)
Aye Aye Captainlast week’s top rated
Speed RatiNgS winners incl.
Catkin ..........................won 6/1
Black Parrot ................won 11/2
Miss Minver ................won 4/1
Royal Regatta .............won 2/1
expresso Martini .........won 18/10
Moon Princess ............won 14/10
our Destiny .................won 14/10
Pure logic ...................won 8/10
a reView of the weeK'S beSt SPeedratingS
c l o c K w a t c h i n g w i t h S t e V e f u r n i S h
Smart hat-trickGreyville 27th November
They raced on both surfaces on Sunday with the lion’s share of the action taking place on the poly. Three of the seven races on the poly track were staged over 1200m and quickest home amongst these was the ultra-consistent NeWyORKSTaTeOFmINd when winning the mR70 handicap. Sent off a clear favourite at 16/10, Sean Tarry’s charge raced in the rear during the early part of the race. Once in the short home straight though, he quickened best of all and went on to score with authority after striking the front 150m from home.
The remaining four races on the poly track all took place over 1400m and stopping the clock in the fastest time here was caPRIVI in the second division of the mR74 handicap. Positioned in midfield early on, the son of mogok ran on strongly under the 4kg claimer denis Schwarz. he struck the front 100m out and won well by a length.
The non-black type KZN 3yo Series 1600m on the turf topped the bill and here victory went to the Sporting Post’s top rated runner in the field mISS mINVeR. Sent off a joint second favourite at 4/1, the hat-trick seeking daughter of dynasty also came from off the pace. She was ridden to lead as they ap-proached the 200m marker and comfortably accounted for the easy to back ONeSIe.
Titbits Poorly drawn and slow into stride to boot, the heavily supported favourite PURE LOGIC ran on well from the rear when winning the boy’s division of the maiden plate over 1900m turf, going away by three.
Giving DirectionVaal 29th November
Tuesday’s action took place on the in-side track where three of the afternoon’s eight races were run over 1400m. The fastest of these was the mR71 handicap won by the easy to back LeT’S GO WeST. Freely available at 10/1 on the off, the Sporting Post’s best handicapped run-ner in the race was soon up handy. he was asked to take up the running going through the 400m and went on to score comfortably from the 5/2 favourite yaN-Kee caPTaIN (had to switch 300m) by a length and a half.
The faster of the two 2000m races was the mR67 handicap won by the well sup-ported outsider maLINGa. eventually sent off at 8/1 after opening up at 16’s, alec Laird’s charge raced in midfield for most of the journey. he ran on strongly over the final 400m and under a well-judged ride from JP v’d merwe he got up late to deny the regular place getter RacING SOcKS (lame near fore).
The two 1700m races were both maiden plates. The faster of these was the boy’s affair won by mILITaRy aWaRd. allowed to ease a little at the track, the brave Tin Soldier gelding was a little troublesome at the start, but despite that was soon up handy. he put his head in front as they approached the 100m pole and won by three quarters from the running on PILOu.
Titbits Running on strongly from the rear, GO DIRECT had to switch 200m out when only beaten 1,6 lengths in the MR89 Handicap.
Whisky In The JarKenilworth 30th November
The only distance to stage more than one race in cape Town on Wednesday was 1400m. The fastest of these four events was the mR96 handicap won by caTKIN. Freely available at 6/1 on the off, the 5yo son of horse chestnut was soon up handy. he was ridden to lead shortly
after passing the 200m pole and kept on strongly in the closing stages of the race to beat the always handy OVeRShadOW by a neck.
Race 8 on the card was an allowance plate over 1500m and here we saw a very smart performance from WhISKy baRON. backed into favouritism at the track, brett crawford’s charge was soon positioned up with the speed. he quick-ened nicely at the top of the straight and went on to score with authority by three and three quarters from the deposed favourite IT’S my TuRN (12/10 out to 5/2).
after the scratching of Icon King, GReeNFLaShSuNSeT looked to be very hard to beat in the maiden plate over 1100m, and he did indeed do the business. deep in the red at 1/4 on the off, the 3yo Gimmethegreenlight colt raced third early on. he put his head in front early in the straight and with a ton in hand won very easily by two and a quarter.
Titbits Well supported into 14/10 from 22/10, MOON PRINCESS won the opening maiden plate over 1400m very comfort-ably by a length and a half.
From Russia With LoveVaal 1st December
They raced on the outside track on Thursday where victory in the fastest of the four 1600m races, a mR80 handi-cap, went to the lightly raced NOTheR RuSSIa. Returning from an eight month layoff here, the daughter of Tiger Ridge raced in the rear early on. The second favourite INaNINSTaNT got first run and quickly going a couple clear after striking the front 350m out, she looked to have the race in the bag. completing a hat-trick here though, mike de Kock’s charge ran on stoutly at the business end of the race and with the rest some four lengths adrift she got up very late.
Three of the remaining six races were maiden plates over 1400m and stopping the clock in the fastest time amongst these was Nother Russia’s stable com-panion aLaadeL in the first division for the boys. having only his second career outing here, the son of Sebring wasn’t the quickest into stride and as a result he raced in midfield. he quickened well
(Number of races run in each category shown in brackets) * Times taken by clockwatcher
Horses worth following at their next few starts...
ALAADEL (M De Kock, Gauteng)NOTHER RUSSIA (M De Kock, Gauteng)PURE LOGIC (D Kannemeyer, KZN)
from halfway and won with authority by two and three quarters after taking it up 330m out.
The faster of the two mR68 handicaps over 1200m was the boy’s affair won by the 3yo TheWayWemaKem. easy to back at 14/1 on the off, St John Gray’s charge was also a little slow into stride, but despite that was soon up handy. he ran on strongly over the final 400m and in a race where less than a length covered the first four home, he got the verdict by a neck.
Titbits The 3yo ELECTRIC LADY ran on well from midfield when getting up late to win the girl’s division of the MR68 Handi-cap over 1200m.
English Premier League Sun 11 dec | old trafford | 16:15
Manchester United will play host to Tottenham on Sunday at Old Trafford in the biggest match of Gameweek 15. Jose Mourinho’s men come into this fixture six points behind Mauricio Pochettino’s fifth-placed team, in dan-ger of being cut adrift of the leading clubs. Pochettino’s Spurs had some good battles with Mourinho’s Chelsea prior to him leaving, and similar will be expected against the Portuguese’s inconsistent but exceptionally talented Red Devils team.
Prediction: Draw (24/10) United have struggled to win matches and have drawn their last four league games at Old Trafford. Spurs have been dismal on their travels, drawing three of their past four away games. The sides are tipped to share the spoils in a tightly-contested affair.
To Win - Man United 11/10 Draw 24/10 To Win - Tottenham 5/2
S P o r t S a n d b e t t i n g
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