The Sabine Plattner Racing Team continued their red-hot summer feature form when Grant van Niekerk timed his run to perfection on the 7yo Crome Yellow to win the R150 000 Bet With The Best Gr3 Cape Summer Stayers Handicap for the second consecutive year at a windy Kenilworth on Saturday.
With a suspension looming from Sunday 5th to Saturday 11th December, Van Niekerk didn’t lack for motivation and rode a cracker to secure a personal double in the 2500m feature.
Grant van Niekerk has Crome Yellow flying as Anton Marcus and Black Knap chase (Pic -Chase Liebenberg)
The defending champion, Crome Yellow has always appreciated the fairer run-in of the Cape track’s summer course and the topweighted bull of a bay unwound from some way off, just as Anton Marcus looked to have secured the lion’s share on Vaughan Marshall’s Black Knap.
Easy to back at 12-1, Crome Yellow confirmed his credentials as one of the region’s most honest stayers as he cut them down gradually to beat Black Knap (5-1) by a half length in a time of 160,47 secs. Interestingly, he clocked 156,04 secs in the corresponding race last year.
The favourite Crimson King (2-1) moved up menacingly, but just lacked the edge late, finishing three quarters of a length back in third, with Holy Warrior (9-2) flying late for fourth.
The pacesetter Bayberry faded out to last after leading for a long way.
Trained by Andre Nel, and a son of Drakenstein’s champion sire Trippi (End Sweep), the La Plaisance-bred Crome Yellow is out of the four-time winning Jallad mare Senorita Sol – who raced under the same Plattner flag.
A winner of 9 races with 14 places from 31 starts, Crome Yellow has banked R782 200.
The Cape Pick 6 pool inexplicably didn’t enjoy the generosity of a carryover and reached R1 078 000. 90% of combinations were in the bin after Crome Yellow’s victory.
OFFICIAL RESULT
| TRAINER | JOCKEY | DISTANCE | BETTING | |||
| 1ST | 1 CROME YELLOW | WA Nel | G van Niekerk | 25/2 | ||
| 2ND | 6 BLACK KNAP | VH Marshall | A Marcus | 0.50 | 0.50 | 5/1 |
| 3RD | 2 CRIMSON KING | GS Kotzen | R Fourie | 0.75 | 1.25 | 9/4 |
| 4TH | 10 HOLY WARRIOR | C Bass-Robinson | A Andrews | 0.10 | 1.35 | 9/2 |
| 5TH | 8 SALVATOR MUNDI | SJ Snaith | K de Melo | 0.20 | 1.55 | 25/2 |
| TIME OF RACE: 2 mins 40.47 sec | ||||||
| Tote
Fav |
2 CRIMSON KING | GS Kotzen | R Fourie | 1.25 | 9/4 | |
