Philippi trainer Brett Crawford only took two horses up the Garden Route for the 2023 Algoa Cup Festival which commenced at Fairview on Friday, and made a dream start to the two day event, courtesy of Zoomie’s gutsy victory in the R250 000 Listed Racehorse Owners Association Stakes.
Crawford’s Querari gelding looked the right one in the eight strong line-up after back-to-back seconds to two decent Justin Snaith-trained three-year-olds, and made his third run post gelding a winning one under Louis Mxothwa.
Slung in under the race conditions, Zoomie (9-10) was backed to win but was made to work hard by local colt Fairy Knight (7-2), who kept him honest all the way to the line.
Zoomie (Louis Mxothwa) gets the better of Fairy Knight (Richard Fourie) in a rousing finish (Pic – Pauline Herman)
With the winner clocking 99,25 secs for the mile, a quarter length separated the top two, with the other Cape visitor Hat’s Pride (7-1) running a cracker, a further 1,50 lengths back in third.
Owned by the Mauritius-based Gujadhur family, Zoomie was bred by Sean Jerrier and is a son of Querari (Oasis Dream) out of the six-time winning Elusive Fort mare, Seek The Summit.
A R110 000 Cape Yearling Sale graduate, Zoomie took his stakes earnings to R453 875 with his second win and 6 places from 8 starts.
The Algoa Cup Festival continues on Sunday with the Listed Algoa Cup the main event on a nine-race card that features a R500 000 carryover Pick 6 pool, which is projected to surpass the R3-million mark.
Brett Crawford’s one-runner assault on the topliner with The Futurist could give him a 100% strike on the weekend, after Zoomie’s good win on Friday.
His charge makes his third appearance this season and has been carefully prepared for this engagement.
He will carry just 54,5kg and will be ridden by Craig Zackey, who steered this consistent son of Futura to into third place last time, after winning and finishing second in his two previous rides on the six-year-old gelding.
Sunday racing at Fairview starts at 12h10.
