Jockey Grant van Niekerk deserves all the credit for a peach of ride as he dictated matters and went all the way to win the R175 000 Gr2 Concorde Cup in fighting fashion on Justin Snaith’s Pomp And Power at Kenilworth on Saturday.
The 1600m feature is a traditional Cape Guineas stepping-stone and the intriguingly named Pomp And Power, winner of the Listed Langerman as a 2yo, threw his name into the hat as a classic contender with a lionhearted performance.
Grant van Niekerk played them on the break getting Pomp And Power home to beat Keagan de Melo and Cosmic Highway (Pic -Chase Liebenberg)
Allowed to dictate matters, Van Niekerk had Pomp And Power (8-1) in front and despite the favourite Cosmic Highway (2-1) unleashing a threatening challenge from way back last into the summer course home run, the Snaith charge dug deep to hold the Kannemeyer challenger to a reducing margin of 0,30 lengths in a time of 98,28 secs.
The only Gr1 winner in the eight-horse field, Good Traveller (4-1) gave them all 2kgs and was not disgraced, a further 1,50 lengths away in third.
The winner is raced by the big hitting trio of Greg Bortz, Etienne Braun and Marsh Shirtliff and again looks full value for his R250 000 National Yearling Sale price tag.
Jockey Grant van Niekerk stood in for Richard Fourie and rode a top race.
“He is a temperamental but gutsy horse – the pony helped. I was meant to drop him right out. But I said to Justin there was no pace in the race and we changed tactics. Justin always comes to my rescue,” laughed Van Niekerk.
Snaith said that all his horses had needed their first season run.
“He had excuses last time – it was a feature. Cosmic Highway was low-level flying. But I liked the way our horse showed fight,” said the SA Champion trainer.
Pomp And Power was bred by Maine Chance Farms and is a son of Vercingetorix (Silvano) out of the well-related unraced Candy Stripes mare, Peru. The is the family of Paraca and Punta Arenas.
Pomp And Power has now won 4 races from 6 starts for stakes of R237 775.
The Cape Guineas will be run on 18 December.
OFFICIAL RESULT
| TRAINER | JOCKEY | DISTANCE | BETTING | |||
| 1ST | 4 POMP AND POWER | SJ Snaith | G van Niekerk | 17/2 | ||
| 2ND | 2 COSMIC HIGHWAY | DM Kannemeyer | K de Melo | 0.30 | 0.30 | 33/20 |
| 3RD | 1 GOOD TRAVELLER | GS Kotzen | S Khumalo | 1.50 | 1.80 | 4/1 |
| 4TH | 8 NEVER ENDING RAIN | GS Kotzen | D Schwarz | 1.25 | 3.05 | 20/1 |
| 5TH | 6 WAITING FOR SUMMER | C Bass-Robinson | A Andrews | 0.20 | 3.25 | 16/1 |
| TIME OF RACE: 1 min 38.28 sec | ||||||
| Tote
Fav |
2 COSMIC HIGHWAY | DM Kannemeyer | K de Melo | 0.30 | 33/20 | |
