Another one of those galloping billboards for relocation to the Eastern Cape, Lotus Island benefitted from a finely judged ride by Richard Fourie to maintain her unbeaten record in the province when clinching a nail-biting victory in the R150 000 Listed East Cape Oaks at Fairview on Friday.
Lotus Island (Richard Fourie) just gets past Honorable Member (Louis Mxothwa, obscured) in a thrilling finish (Pic – Pauline Herman)
This wasn’t exactly the way we expect a 7-10 to beat a 40-1 chance, but reigning champion Fourie got the job done, taking years off the lives of the favourite backers in the process.
With just one place from 5 starts in the care of Justin Snaith in the Cape, Lotus Island has turned her career around since her first start in Gqeberha back in January and made it four wins on the trot as she nailed her maiden stakes victory to her burgeoning cv in style.
While her first three wins were achieved by an aggregate 11 lengths, Lotus Island, one of a quartet of Allan Greff runners in the seven horse field, was made to work a lot harder this time, and she appeared to be running for second cheque as Louis Mxothwa looked to have judged things perfectly on pacesetter Honorable Member.
“Lucky for me I had a good horse under me. You don’t leave that strong man Louis Mxothwa too far in front,” quipped the Ridgemont-sponsored Fourie, who said Lotus Island was slow away until finding her rhythm when the pace picked up.
In a grandstand finish, Fourie drove Lotus Island (7-10) up the outside to collar Honorable Member (40-1) by a nose in a time of 124,53 secs for the poly 2000m.
The winner’s stablemate First Wish (4-1) was third a further 1,50 lengths back, with fellow Halo Stables resident Can’t Say No (25-1) capping the quartet.
Raced by Wendy Applebaum and Wilgerbosdrift (Pty) Ltd, the winner was bred by Wilgerbosdrift & Mauritzfontein.
A daughter of Ideal World (Kingmambo), Lotus Island is out of the one-time winning Tiger Ridge mare, Glenshee.
Now a winner of 4 races with a place from her 9 starts, Lotus Island took her stakes earnings to R278 713.
The switch of the racemeeting from turf to poly drew a number of questions, and would not have suited the Cape raiders who travelled up the Garden Route to compete on the originally advertised surface. That’s racing.
