Flying High! Karis Teetan steers Frequent Flyer to an end-to-end win.
Brett Crawford and Karis Teetan continued their feature winning streak at Kenilworth on Saturday 14 January when they added the R125 000 Listed Jamaica Handicap to their ever widening 2012 purple patch.
When things are going right, then everything keeps going right. And we could hardly blame Crawford for adopting the old Toyota advertisement as his stable slogan after a wonderful ten days of 2012. He has after all won the Gr2 Pensinsula Handicap; the Gr1 Paddock Stakes; the Listed Politician Stakes; and now the Listed Jamaica Handicap – all in the space of that short time.
Having learnt the finer skills and balance of training racehorses and managing people from excellent judges and masters like Dennis Drier, Crawford has grown in stature since going on his own after a very successful stint with Sabine Plattner Racing. Having the support of the right, able and powerful owners and then producing the results, is a sure-fire way to head in the right direction. And one only has to glance at the Crawford owner portfolio to see that he is attracting attention in all the right circles.
Young Karis Teetan is an important cog in the Crawford wheel and he rode a pearler from the front on the Silvano filly Frequent Flyer, to win the Jamaica
Jamaica Joy! Brett and Gill Crawford, Tina Rau and Gold Circle's Tom Fowler.
Handicap. The memories – good and bad- of the Paddock Stakes pace debacle would have been fresh in his mind and knowing what he had under him, he took the fight to the enemy early in the first feature of the afternoon. Turning for home he let the supremely fit Maine Chance horse stride and she had too much in reserve for a chasing Ce Loire. The Kotzen’s Golden Dawn ran right out of her skin as a one-time winner to dash through for third place. Frequent Flyer has won five from twelve starts and is out of the terrific racemare, Fov’s Fancy. She looks to have booked her berth in the Crawford Champions Season float and is improving all the time.
Former Gold Circle Chairman Ken Truter and trainer Vaughan Marshall have a very smart filly on their hands in the Aussie bred Dubai Gina, who has earned at all her seven career starts. Tried for the first time over ground in the R125 000 Listed Sun Classique Handicap run over 2400m, she was a runaway winner under MJ Byleveld. Mary Hinge made the pace but tired late and it was left to another Australian bred in Satin Silver to plod into a never threatening second position.
Both the feature winners look great broodmares in the making – Dubai Gina being by Dubai Destination out of a Sunday Silence mare.
Guess who? The odds-on shot is in the white and red - the rank outider is in yellow and orange.
What is the difference between an 11-20 shot and a 50-1 outsider? Maybe plenty on paper but very little in reality and those punters that followed the Snaith stable confidence in the opening race, a Maiden Juvenile Plate over 1000m, would have had their hearts in their throats in the final 25 meters. Felix Coetzee had the pacy debutante Pleasure Jet out at the head of affairs from early in the short sprint and she looked to draw away fom her opposition in the final 200m. But that was until the Vaughan Marshall trained first-time Countess Of Rhynie started to realise what competition and racing was all about. MJ Byleveld got Alec Foster’s unfancied daughter of Count Dubois to kick late and she flew at the Snaith filly – the heads up and down duel going the way by pure chance to the favourite. The lesson – do not buy money on short-priced horses!
An odd exchange occurred in the closing stages of the third race and Place Accumulator opener. The Maiden Plate(F&M) run over 2000m looked a race in two between Daily Flight and Starlight Beauty but neither got close after Starlight Beauty had made the pace – a strange move after she had run on well in her first four starts under the same jockey. The experiment simply didn’t work as she shortened her stride at the 300m and went backwards. The winner’s cheque was left for the taking by Felix Coetzee riding the Joey Ramsden filly Impressive Rock – Joey’s umpteenth Jooste winner this season.
Taking Flak? Jason Smitsdorff took some heat from a veteran jockey.
But what happened at the finish? The body language of veteran Karl Neisius on the fancied Daily Flight and the nineteen year old greenhorn apprentice Jason Smitsdorff told a story. Neisius looked to be upset about something as he exchanged words with the young man after being pipped for the vital fourth spot. In fact Smitsdorff looked rather sheepish as he entered the final 50m and was hardly aggressive on board the Kotzen’s 25-1 longshot. We will monitor the Stipes Report on this one and while Tellytrack’s Shaheen Shaw picked it up in studio, we were sadly not given the benefit of a head-on shot to clarify matters.
The Jooste silks were in the winner’s enclosure again in the very next race, a Maiden Plate over 1400m, when MJ Odendaal rode his first winner on South African soil for some time. Paddy Kruyer had the National Emblem filly La Patineuse prepped to the minute and she won easily from her 3 draw at only her fourth start. Fair enough she only beat the battling Sully’s Landing, but the ease of victory told a story of scope and promise.
Captainofthe guard stamped his presence on the eighth race, an MR90 Handicap over 1200m – for all the wrong reasons. The five year old gelded son of Captain Al disrupted the start and tested the patience of the starter to breaking point. The victims of the distraction, Reigning Monarch and Lucky Moon, both lost ground but ran cavalier races – running second and third respectively. Neither, though, had a chance with the winner Entrador, who enjoyed a powerful drive by Richard Fourie to keep going to win his fourth race from seventeen starts. Formerly raced in the Jaffee silks at his previous homes with Geoff Woodruff and Dean Kannemeyer, the son of Orpen has changed hands and is in the form of his life, having shaken off his own emotional issues on racedays.
Honour Thy Father-In-Law! Richard Fourie steers Act With Honour home to register a double.
The high-riding Fourie completed his second consecutive daily double when he rode the winner of the very next race, when producing Act With Honour for his father-in –law Glen Puller, to win the MR76 Handicap over 1200m going away. More Of Me had made the pace but compounded late – in so doing falling back on the rail on to the fancied Leisure Jet – who had to be switched in late for a run. Raging Bull ran on well for second, while Infinityandbeyond improved to stay on for third and deny Leisure Jet’s backers.
The Sporting Post wishes Jockey Brandon Morgenrood and his wife Mandy congratulations and the very best of luck on the birth of their bonny son, Cruz Slade, born on Thursday 12 January. And a probable heavyweight like his Dad at 4,13kgs!
