What a great weekend’s racing . . . . .
Friday kicked off with an 8 race card at Fairview.
Grant Paddock notched up a hat trick of wins, Gavin Smith took home the honours in the card opener and the afternoon’s Listed EC Nursery, while Alan Greeff and Warren Kennedy took the honours on Lord Badger in the Listed EC Guineas. Mitch Wiese and Nooresh Juglall won the MR66 Handicap in fine style with Tiger’s Smile and Justin Snaith’s raiding party rounded off the card with a winner in the last.
A short hop up to Greyville showed that Dennis Drier is hitting his stride with a hat trick of victories, including holding off the raiders in the evening’s Listed KZN Stakes with Torra Bay.
Saturday
Saturday’s Turffontein meeting opened with a stunning debut win for Genuine Leather for the Paul Matchett stable under a ride from Randall Simons. While a few other jockeys did get a look in, Gavin Lerena proved to be on devastating form, earning tours of the winner’s enclosure 3 times, adding valuable points to his tally for the Jockey Championship.
Easter Sunday
Although he had to miss Easter with his family, Gavin Lerena more than made up for it by adding another 2 wins, 3 seconds, a third and fifth placed ride to his CV in Borrowdale on Easter Sunday.
South African Easter fare was provided by the postponed Clairwood meeting with highlights being a win from last season’s Champion 2YO Delago Deluxe in the second of the afternoon and some inspired camerawork from Tellytrack’s team, who followed Anton Marcus all through the weigh out and back to the podium ! Vaughan Marshall’s string was in winning form with a stunning win from Valdivia in the Gr3 Strelitzia, followed up with a second Var victory in the Gr3 Godolphin Barb with Twitter. Deon Visser and Keagan de Melo just hung on for the honours in the Listed Easter Handicap with Hold The Gold.
Easter Monday
Some torrential weekend rain softened the going nicely for Cape Town’s Monday card and fortunately the sun came out and shone down on Kenilworth’s Family Fun Day. The initiative was very well supported by everyone on course with Derek Brugman, Richard Fourie, Joey Ramsden and the Hammies Team all bringing their kids along for the day. With a variety of interesting stalls, jumping castles, mechanical horses and sweet treats for kids of all ages, everyone was kept entertained.
It was a real coup to have Andrew Fortune on the commentary team and I think it proved a great success. Andrew added some valuable, accurate and entertaining insights and I hope we will be seeing more of him. Another thumbs up to the Kenilworth production team for getting Amos to interview the work rider’s race winner Musa Ngozi – very nice touch! I hope the rider of the second placed horse bounced back from his fall just after the line.
I particularly enjoyed Mike Bass’s win in the second with Intimateconnection. As Candice mentioned in the post-race interview, Mike purchased the filly for R20k on the Cape sale ‘to see whether he could still pick a cheapie’. The smile on Mike’s face gave away just how much he enjoyed this one and I guess it just goes to prove that horses really don’t know how much they cost. The replays deserve a mention for some creative additional footage and interesting camera angles of the lead ins and feel good moments from the connections.
The story of the day has got to be the quite phenomenal win from Cape Royal for Lady Laidlaw and Dean Kannemeyer Racing. Not only did the beautiful Cheveley bred colt produce a memorable debut, but he did so under the exceptional piloting of Karl Neisius who clocked up his 3000th career win in the process. Karl seems to cop more than his fair share of criticism from the punting ranks, but for what it’s worth, I can vouch that he is one of our hardest working jockeys and it is an extremely hard-earned and well-deserved milestone.
Although his first crop are only still warming up, wins for Drakenstein Stud’s Trippi have become almost par for the course and Hammie’s Hooker obliged nicely in the 4th for the Bass yard and Hammie connections under another lovely ride from Bernard Faydherbe. Although the connections were reserved in their comments, three from three is no mean feat and I am sure we can look forward to seeing a lot more of this filly.
A Boy Named Sue put in a great effort pillar to post for Good Hope Racing under the skilful tutelage of Richard Fourie and looks set for a crack at the EP Winter Derby.
Vaughan Marshall continued his strong form line, with a stunning 1-2 in the afternoon’s Listed Somerset feature and the West Is Wide won well for a third winning photo op for the afternoon for Bernard Faydherbe.
After an early career win, Spy Glass seemed to lose a bit of form, but seems to be loving life in the Cape and at Woodhill in particular and certainly seems to have turned a corner under the care of Glen Kotzen. He produced a fighting win under Grant van Niekerk in the 7th on the day’s card.
Good Hope Racing seem to have found the right formula for the tricky Captain Al filly, Full Regalia and she rewarded their patience with a solid second win in the 8th of the afternoon. The day ended on a high for Highlands Farms’ Windrush who sired 3 of the first 4 past the post, earning a tour of the winner’s enclosure for Eric Sands and clocking up the 3001st win for that man Karl Neisius. May there be many more.
Clairwood again
The day’s opener provided a tight finish, with Anton Marcus and Contador just having the measure of Donovan Dillon and Midnight Run. The Cape raiders are making an impression on the KZN season with DKR and Raymond Danielson posting a nice win for Fieldspring Racing with Mainspring and Plattner Racing’s Yogas Govender and a clearly thrilled Tshepo Matsoele topping the board in the 5th with Look After Me. I must comment on the polite, confident and well-spoken apprentices who seem to be gracing our screens with increasing regularity. My congratulations to the Academy – your charges are doing you proud. There were some nice doubles for the Puller and Dixon stables and the day ended on a rather cold and rainy note.
Congratulations to all the runners, riders, trainers and winning connections.
Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes
As followers of the ABC forum already know, Matthew Lips will shortly be taking on a new challenge as Senior Handicapper at the NHA. Born into an entirely unhorsey family, Matthew developed an early interest in horses and it is our eternal good fortune that his family indulged and fostered his passion as Magic has become an institution on the South African racing scene. He has been a part of the Winning Form team since the late 80’s and an integral part of the Sporting Post infrastructure since it’s inauguration in the mid-90’s and has accumulated some incredible memories and great war stories along the way. Matthew’s unrivalled ability to judge form, read and interpret a race, combined with his formidable writing skills and sense of humour have made him a firm favourite across the board. He says it will be a wrench, but the opportunity to make a real impact on our racetracks proved too good to resist. While he will be sorely missed, Winning Form and the Sporting Post’s loss is most definitely the industry’s gain and we wish him every success and happiness for the future.
