Dead Cert, easy win in the 6th
Newly elected TBA Chairman and Milkwood Stud boss Ian Robertson and his wife Nina were on hand to lead their supremely talented and versatile daughter of Dynasty, Sammy Jo, into the winner’s box after her impressive victory in the R120 000 Listed East Cape Oaks at a sunny Fairview Racecourse on Friday 3 June. Her sire, Dynasty, also sired the eyecatching third placed San Remo, while Dynasty’s sire Fort Wood sired the second placed Short List. Lightweight 25 year old jockey Muzi Yeni, who rode the winner and in so doing completed a superb treble on the day, is now lying at third spot on the national jockey log and enjoying the season of his life.
The South African Jockey Academy will inevitably have its detractors in any discussion where racing folk congregate, but we have to concede that the top ten riders on the national log make an absolute mockery of the contrived transformation in other sporting codes like cricket and rugby. With names like Marcus, Yeni, Teetan, Fortune and Khumalo, amongst others, in the top ten on pure and utter merit, it is difficult to find a culture or race group that is not represented. Let’s give credit where it is due and this truly is a great advertisement for the sport. One must wonder why this is not utilised to promote the game and sow the seeds of positivity? Fair enough, Sammy Jo’s groom was forgotten about in the excitement of the Fairview feature race presentation ceremony, but it was a little oversight in an industry that can’t really be accused too often of discrimination.
But back to Muzi. The fresh-faced Winning Form sponsored rider, who rode the first Grade 1 winner of his career when Happy Landing won the Challenge just a few weeks back, rode another winner for Dynasty at Scottsville on Wednesday just past, in the promising Sage Throne, and he appears to have built up something of an affinity with the offspring of this up-and-coming stallion. Yeni has turned his career around in the past eighteen months by upping his work rate, changing his attitude and clocking up voyager miles to exotic destinations like Kimberley – and even the cold and wet Western Cape this weekend.
The Oaks was a great triumph for Mauritzfotein’s Sadler’s Wells stallion Fort Wood, who has had a profound impact on South African horseracing and is the only sire in our history to sire three 3 year old Horses Of The Year in Horse Chestnut, Celtic Grove and the brilliant Vodacom Durban July winner, Dynasty. The Thoroughbred Group’s John Freeman, who manages Dynasty’s stud career, is in Epsom this weekend for the Investec Derby Festival, but there is no doubt that he found a television set somewhere to watch the Fairview feature and witness Sammy Jo and the third placed San Remo carry the flag with pride. ‘Sammy Jo has earned a well-deserved rest and we have a special plan for her.’ So says trainer Gavin Smith of the Milkwood Stud owned and bred three year old who has had a rather tough and hectic 2011 programme with a race almost every two weeks since January. She obviously thrives on racing and her and Muzi have built a special relationship winning four races together in that period. She is also remarkably versatile having won from 1000m to 2000m and she will prove an invaluable addition to the Milkwood broodmare band in time to come. In the race itself she was some way back in the early stages and appeared to be overracing ever so slightly as she was caught in some slow traffic, as the optimistic contenders Star Of Erin and Annwyn cut out a fair pace. She produced her electric burst of acceleration in the final 200m to withstand a challenge from the Oppenheimer owned Short List, who appeared to relish the extra ground, while the one-time winner San Remo, running off a merit rating of just 65, ran out of her skin for a tremendous third. What price her in a Novice race next time?
The Robertsons started their day well in the second race when their two year old daughter of Black Minnaloushe, the interestingly named Jennyandtots, won the Maiden 1200m event when staying on late to beat the much improved 66-1 Bo Jally. She had contested the Nursery at her previous start but after knocking her mouth on the starting gates, she over exerted herself and fell in a hole. Ridden with more restraint here, she won really well. Hailing from one of their best female lines in the Jallad mare, Blushing Fairy, Ian Robertson explained after the race that Jennyandtots would never have made it past the inspectors on to a Sale as she had ‘upright’ and ‘offset’ legs. Fate sometimes works in positive ways as her Breeder landed up keeping her for racing – although punters should watch her closely as she may not be the best betting proposition here on in with those suspect pins.
Trainer Mike Mclachlan has trained eighteen winners this season from a string of nineteen horses and he sent out the former Glen Kotzen-trained Adam for the Cape Trainer’s Mom-In –Law and breeder Geoff Winshaw, to score a smooth win in the fourth race under Morne Winnaar, who was doing stable duty for the suspended Marco Van Rensburg. Adam had only been with Mike Mclachlan for three weeks and touched odds-on before drifting a little to around 12-10 in the betting. Those brave punters who took the price, would have suffered heart failure at around the 250m marker as he had to check and was looking around as Winnaar cajoled and coaxed him vigorously into some form of effort and focus. He eventually grabbed the lead a few strides out to hold off the storming late run of the two year old colt, Villa D’Este, who flew late. Pencil this chap in! As for Adam, we suggest caution next time – even with a set of blinkers, he may not get away with his lazy antics in stronger company.
Gavin Smith trained the second of his four winners when Warren Kennedy rode an intelligent race to get the Jet Master filly, Steel Butterfly, home to win the fourth race, a Maiden Platen run over 1600m. The post-race interview told quite a story though. Firstly her jockey called her a ‘ dainty, skinny and limited filly’. This kind of honesty is appreciated by punters who follow form closely, but one had the feeling that her trainer was doing a little damage control when he followed those comments with a ‘I do feel she will get stronger and win again.’ Trainers are in a tough position and while her original owner Rupert Plersch paid R150 000 for her, the current owner Paul Barrett bought him out and as a nicely bred sort she may be a better proposition in the breeding paddocks after beating this mediocre bunch. Time will tell and we may yet end up eating our words.
Glen Hatt and trainer Joey Ramsden may have come away from the Oaks with a measly fourth-placed cheque but they paid for their trip up the Garden Route in the sixth race when Peter and Pirjo Carr’s son of Tara’s Halls, Dead Cert, came away from his field to easily beat the inconsistent but talented Eton Mess with the mercurial Mister Gone plodding late into third. Dead Cert had run second in the Langerman in his baby year but has battled to put it all together and it was a clever ride by Hatt who kept switching him in a game of hide and seek in the home straight. It worked well and his rider said afterwards that his biggest problem down south was the slow pace at which Cape races were run.
Trainer Ampie Calitz cast a whole new dimension on the words ‘maturity and development’ when he spoke excitedly in the post-race interview after his charge Big John had won the seventh race under Aldo Domeyer. If one accepts Ampie’s words that the six year old ‘is only furnishing now and coming into his own’ then this fifth win at his 61st start may be the beginning of a new lease on life for the former Duncan Howells trained gelding. Domeyer had run second on him last Monday, but showed the benefit of that experience when he held him up for a few strides longer than he did that day. It made all the difference – now let’s just hope they don’t run him in club colours again.
The beautifully-bred blinker-strike daughter of Western Winter, Kuba Cloth, closed the day on a high for Mauritian rider Karis Teetan who would probably rather have celebrated his 21st birthday on this Friday in Port Louis than Port Elizabeth, and so many miles away from his family across the Indian Ocean. He and Yvette Bremner have struck up a winning partnership and the former Mike Bass-trained and Wilgerbosdrift Stud owned and bred filly had failed to win from five starts in the Cape and had never in fact run a place before winning this Maiden Plate over 1000m. Being out of a Sadler’s Wells mare, one can’t exactly point fingers at anybody who assumed she would need a little ground to show her best. But the very capable Yvette Bremner found the right recipe with a set of blinkers down the straight track and Teetan set her alight late to beat the pacy Surging River filly Ice On Fire , who showed a remarkable turnaround in her own form-line.
