Less than a week after winning one of the coveted prizes in South African horseracing, Justin Snaith and Grant van Niekerk were back in the feature race winner’s enclosure.
Grant van Niekerk has Fifty Cents banking the top cheque in style (Pic – Pauline Herman Photography)
This time it was 750 km down the Garden Route at Fairview on Friday, where the gutsy 5yo Fifty Cents ran out an easy winner of the Fairview Mile.
Champions can do it anywhere and the rollercoaster dip from a R5 million Gr1 down to a R110 000 non black-type feature was handled with professionalism by the form combination. Not that the day was a complete cakewalk – a few of their fancied earlier runners failed to come up trumps.
The 2016 Listed Jet Master Stakes winner, Fifty Cents had run 16 lengths behind champion Legal Eagle in his last outing, but showed his class under top weight on Friday with a workmanlike performance for Caroline Rupert and Anysec Pty Ltd.
Van Niekerk had the 5yo settled in midfield and produced him at the 350m as the pacesetter Cape Rebel started gasping for air.
The race was all over bar the shouting in the final 250m as Fifty Cents drew off to beat Laws Of Succession by 2,50 lengths in a time of 97,83 secs.
The Drakenstein Stud-bred Fifty Cents is a 5yo gelded son of Trippi (End Sweep) and is a half brother to the well-performed 2011 SA Derby winner Seal (Silvano). He is out of the unraced Prestine Performer (Rambo Dancer).
A R900 000 Cape Premier Yearling Sale Book 1 graduate, he has won 7 races with 9 places from 22 starts for stakes of R513 000.
One of the biggest Bipot dividends on record was declared at Fairview after first-timers from the Duncan McKenzie yard filled the first two places in the second leg. The popular exotic paid R270 000, with the Place Accumulator not half bad at R43 000!
