Muzi Yeni pushes Oats out to an easy win in the Cradock Place Stakes (Coastal Photos)
The Lundy’s Liability gelding Oats won his first ever start in PE just under a year ago after arriving from Cape Town a modest maiden. On Friday he notched up his fifth victory when grabbing top honours in the R100 000 Cradock Places Stakes run over 1200m on the Fairview polytrack.
Oats raced formerly with the Dolfie Maeder yard in Cape Town where he ran in the silks of the trainer’s wife, Heidi.
He left the Mother City after just one place cheque from his first rather modest five starts.
The pace was on from the jump as Brother In Arms set the gallop from his rails draw and led Yoshie.
Oats was relaxed early and came at the leaders from a few lengths off.
The gelding was confidently ridden by Muzi Yeni as he grabbed the lead from Brother In Arms and Yoshie and ran on powerfully.
Oats was a popular winner and went off a weak favourite after the scratching of Tetelestai. He won in a time of 69,84 secs.
Tara Laing- happy four-timer on the day
The only filly in the race, Yoshie, ruined her chances by playing up at the start, but ran a good race despite the exertions to run a one length second.
The ever consistent Russian Mig earned again when he snatched third place from a tiring Brother In Arms, who appear to have been made quite a lot of use of from his rails barrier position.
Owner Ebrahim Moosa has enjoyed a great run with Oats, who has won 5 races with 7 places from his 17 starts for stakes of R289 525
Oats was bred by Raymond Koopstad, a former schoolteacher from the Ceres Valley
The gelding is by Lundy’s Liability out of the Sportsworld mare, Get Sporty.
The training honours on the day belonged to Tara Laing who sent out 4 winners, and signalled that her yard can be followed again after the early season housekeeping break.
Riding honours were shared by Greg Cheyne. Muzi Yeni and Raymond Danielson, who rode a double apiece.
Early results tested punters yet again with on-course Tellytrack presenter Sheldon Peters suggesting that he was probably best off by discarding the top few in the betting when making his selections. Not a bad idea in PE!
