Joey Ramsden’s fiercely competitive streak and his willingness to brave the trading of blows in the big league paid handsome dividends at Turffontein on Saturday when the superb chestnut hulk of Brutal Force danced across the Turffontein 1160m to score a sensational R450 000 Gr2 Merchants victory.
Brutal Force (Anton Marcus) holds off Dollar Dazzler (Weichong Marwing) to win the Merchants (Pic-JC Photos)
With the Pick 6 pool hitting projections and closing at R 5 376 919, punters were off to a belter of a start with the tote favourite storming home to clinch a well deserved victory.
There was drama at the start when Doing It For Dan refused to load and was scratched. That would have been a major disappointment for trainer Louis Goosen after an excellently programmed prep – but at least punters who backed him were okay as his number 5 saddle-cloth qualified for exotics.
The 15-4 favourite Brutal Force was prominent under Anton Marcus throughout and kept going gamely under a hard ride to edge out 25-1 outsider Dollar Dazzler by 0.40 lengths in a time of 66,25 secs.
The 8yo PE visitor and former Computaform Sprint winner Copper Parade ran a huge race in third, ahead of Aurum Pot – with the second of the Bremner runners in Copper Parade’s stablemate Al Don Cumarco running a cracker in fifth.
Ramsden, who many regard first and foremost as a trainer of stayers, has done an outstanding job keeping the big sprinter fit and sound.
Joey Ramsden – great job
A full-brother to the well-performed Red Ray, the Lammerskraal Stud bred Brutal Force is by Western Winter out of the four-time winning Pas De Quoi mare, Nacarat.
This is a prolific winning family and Brutal Force has continued the tradition, having won 6 of 14 starts for 5 places and R1 496 100 in stakes.
Markus Jooste bid a new South African record for a horse sold at auction when going to R4,5m for Brutal Force, at the CTS Ready To Run Sale at Durbanville in 2013.
He had originally purchased Brutal Force at the Cape Premier Yearling Sale for R1,5m and outbid Mike Azzie patron Adriaan Van Vuuren to set his record.
The previous record was the R4m bid by the late Graham Beck for Divine Jet at the 2010 National Yearling Sales in Germiston.
In January this year, the Jooste Brutal Force record was shattered and a new bar was set in the Cape Premier Yearling Sale first session when a Maine Chance Farms bred Dynasty colt was knocked down to a new Mike Bass patron for R5,2 million.
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Gr2 Merchants (SAf-Gr2)
Turffontein, South Africa, November 28, R450k, 1160m, turf, good, 1.06.25
1 – BRUTAL FORCE (SAF), 56.0, ch g 4, Western Winter (USA) – Nacarat (SAF) by Pas De Quoi (SAF). Owner Mrs I Jooste & Mr M J Jooste; Breeder S Bruss; trainer J Ramsden; jockey A Marcus
2 – Dollar Dazzler (SAF), 55.0, b g 5, Var (USA) – Isla Bonita (SAF) by Joshua Dancer (USA)
3 – Copper Parade (SAF), 53.5, b g 8, Lecture (USA) – Copper Horizon (SAF) by Al Mufti (USA)
Margins: 0.40, 0.60, 0.70
