In a rare double feature exacta feat, Dennis Drier followed up on his Avontuur-bred Godolphin Barb top-two finish of last month at the same venue with the duo of Tempting Fate and Pray For Rain, when the ‘Medallion Man’ saddled his 8th Gr1 Golden Horse Medallion winner on Saturday.
Drier described the winner as ‘the one horse I wanted at the 2019 Cape Premier Yearling Sale and ‘a racehorse going places’.
And the superb son of Master Of My Fate duly delivered, giving top Cape breeders Avontuur a glorious Gr1 top two, and the second success at that level after their Rivarine won the Computaform Sprint a week earlier.
Sean Veale salutes as Tempting Fate storms home (Pic – Candiese Lenferna)
Part-owner Brian Airey was on course and received acknowledgement as a lifelong friend and the man with the foresight to keep bidding on the winner after the Drier budget had been exhausted.
“I had no owner! A massive thanks to Briany,” exclaimed a pleased as punch trainer.
The day proved a watershed moment for the Varsfontein sire Master Of My Fate (Jet Master), who produced his first Gr1 winner, having so far sired at least one graded stakes winners in each of his three crops of racing age.
On a happy day for a lethally effective trainer-owner-breeder-jockey partnership, Mr Drier’s wife Gill even enjoyed some of the accolades for being ‘the backbone’ of the powerful multiple champion winning yard, and for putting up with all of her legendary horseman husband’s ‘mmm’, in the words of the enthusiastic Veale!
Riding strictly to instructions not to rush down the inside, but to stay in the middle of the quick-running Capital City surface, Veale rode a copybook race.
Afterwards he described Tempting Fate as ‘the best 2yo in the country’, proudly saying he was the only guy to ride him everyday and ‘hasn’t sat on a horse like this before’.
The contest panned out perfectly, with the winner’s talented stablemate Pray For Rain showing lightning speed and leading the charge after the only filly, Slalom Queen had shown
At the 300m Veale set Tempting Fate alight.
Lugging inwards, maybe as a result of being green, he made momentary contact with Pray For Rain late, before surging away
Tempting Fate (3-1) maintained his three-from-three record and drew away to beat Pray For Rain (15-1) by 1,50 lengths in a time of 68,31 secs, in an all Drier affair.
Vaughan Marshall’s February debut winner No Laying Up (40-1) was a further 2,10 lengths away in third.
Cape raider Erik The Red (2-1) could do no better than a 5,10 lengths fourth.
Master Of My Fate (Jet Master – Promisefrommyheart)
Dennis Drier trained both the sire and dam of the Avontuur-bred winner, a R550 000 Cape Premier Yearling Sale graduate, who took his stakes bank to R303 750.
Tempting Fate is out of the super quick Gr3 winning Var mare, Miss October, a full sister to Gr1 winner August Rush.
Master Of My Fate has 19 lots on the upcoming Emperors Palace National Yearling Sale.
