Geoff Woodruff lifted the training honours on the day with a great treble
In stark contrast to the previous day’s Scottsville meeting, exotic bet punters had a torrid time of it at the Vaal on Thursday 2 June where the Jackpot paid an extremely healthy, and what must be close to a record dividend, of R294 000. Geoff Woodruff lifted the training honours on the day with a great treble. He probably had to hire a bodyguard or three after Sherman Brown got the 33-1 shot Fort Petersburg home to win the sixth race beating his far more fancied stablemate Forest in nerve-racking but convincing style. The lesson of the day – punting and training racehorses are two pursuits best left well alone by the weak of heart and pocket.
This gelding obviously blossoms in the month of June and punters have very short memories! Judging from the lack of betting interest, few folk gave two hoots about the grey Fort Petersburg’s impressively emphatic win a year ago in the Listed Thukela Handicap at Greyville where he had disposed of such capable sorts as Rudi Rocks, Thandolwami and even that smart fellow Russian Sage. That may have been his three odd minutes of fame, but lest we forget the old adage that says that horses lose form but not ability. The former Dominic Zaki-trained Fort Wood gelding certainly provided living proof of this as he recorded his third win from twenty starts in the day’s low-key topliner, a humble MR 87 Handicap over 2000m. At the same time he probably put an embarrassed blush on his trainer’s face and destroyed the smiles on the faces of the remaining surviving jackpot punter spirits, setting the tone for a huge dividend. It was also a damn fine ride by the underrated replacement rider Sherman Brown, who makes up for his lack of charisma in front of the cameras with raw power and riding ability. It was a double celebration of sorts for Brown who got the better of Superman, Anton Marcus, who absolutely no doubt had first choice of the stable rides and had to play a rare second fiddle on the more fancied Forest.
Fort Petersburg blossoms in June
It is difficult to fathom out why exactly Fort Petersburg has such a sketchy career track record but, in his defence, his race record reflects a litany of deep end swimming. Maybe he was just overrated by his connections early on after winning at his third start and it has been an uphill battle for him since then where he has bumped the best with regularity and probably had his spirit and heart broken a few times too often. He had shown a glimmer of form at his previous start in an MR 90 Handicap when running on nicely for a decent fifth and confirmed that improvement with a fluent victory here in this lesser event. Brown moved him up menacingly down the inside rail as Forest and Foreign Reserve, with two of our best jockeys Marcus and Felix Coetzee in the respective saddles, cutting each other’s throats and then switched him sharply late for a very brave win that augurs well for the future. He is after all only four years old, quite lightly raced, and has plenty of time left.
Fort Petersburg was bred by Dr Ashley Parker’s Port Elizabeth-based Ascot Stud, who also bred the winner of the very next race, this time at 40-1 and, you guessed it, trained by the wily Woodruff! And if current form puzzled you with the grey horse, then the formless Special Interest poses a bigger puzzle, bordering sublimely on an Agatha Christie whodunnit. He looks every inch the ordinary individual with just one win from his previous fourteen starts, but the son of former Ascot flagbearer Al Mufti benefitted from an enterprising ride from the front by promising apprentice Nuresh Juglall. He literally ran away from his field to put the final nail in Jackpot punter coffins. He beat the schizophrenically inclined Bell Harbour at equally generous odds into second with Royal Rez, whose only claim to fame is a short head second to the brilliant Oracy in the 2009 Grade 2 Gauteng Guineas, into third, in a PA result of note. With results like these, the Lotto looks eminently winnable.
Fifty year old trainer Erico Verdonese, now in the fifteenth year of his licence, only has a string of 34 horses at his Turffontein home base but he celebrated a rare double when winning the third and fourth races with an outsider and fancied horse respectively. The third race was won by the three year old Casey Tibbs gelding Dublin Dude, who showed that staying may well be his game when shedding his maiden at the expense of the far more fashionable American-bred, Marghoob from the De Kock Yard. The latter, a grandson of Kingmambo, is a son of Belmont Stakes winner, Lemon Drop Kid, and looks like he has some scope over ground and should improve to win in his next start or two – or at least that is what Mike De Kock will be hoping for! Verdonese then won the fourth race, a Maiden run over 1700m, with the three year old daughter of King Of Kings, Royal Wings, who looks like she will comfortably justify her R90 000 price tag. She has earned at all three career starts. She looks a fair sort in the making and may just be more comfortable over 1400m at this stage of the game.
Sherman Brown was the most successful rider on the day with a neat double and the rest shared the spoils at one apiece, including Anton Marcus and Anthony Delpech, who had a quiet day by their high standards. The two are slogging it out at the top of the jockey log and Marcus particularly wouldn’t have been too pleased to be downed twice in tight driving finishes by the likes of Brown and the journeyman Menno Malherbe, who graduated as a special apprentice via the work-riding ranks a few years ago and looks to be taking his career a little more seriously these days.
So all told, an entertaining yet trying day with the Pick Six dividend of R106 000 playing second fiddle to the star performing fast growing exotic , the jackpot and the PA paid a mouthwatering R4000 – after just R97 yesterday. Maybe there is some merit in those 5% fractional perms after all?
