Vaughan Marshall is a master with 2yo’s and the Milnerton conditioner pulled a rabbit out of the hat when his once raced maiden Woljayrine blew his seven opponents away to win the R200 000 Gr3 Godolphin Barb at Scottsville on Sunday.
MJ Byleveld drives Woljayrine to a shock win
The biggest outsider in the field, Woljayrine was kept to his 1 draw station all the way by MJ Byleveld and went on strongest to beat some highly rated opposition.
Marshall and Byleved last won this race in 2012 with the superfast Twitter, who went on to a career in Mauritius.
Woljayrine, who paid R42 on the tote for a win, was ignored by many punters – and hindsight being the exact science it is, any unraced 2yo brought to KZN by this top stable should really have had the alarm bells ringing!
MJ Byleveld – good Sunday
The colt made an inauspicious Greyville debut three weeks ago and showed good improvement at his second start on Sunday.
The fancied unbeaten Varallo took an awkward jump out of the gates and this would have done his prospects little good as Autumn In Seattle dashed off into his customary role as pacesetter, ahead of the favourite and fellow Cape challenger, Sir Frenchie.
Woljayrine was always in the firing line and kept grinding away as the leaders faltered.
At the 200m it was wide open and Sir Frenchie looked to be finishing best of all.
But Byleveld had things under control and Woljayrine went on strongly to the dismay of punters to beat fellow Capetonian Sir Frenchie by a length in a time of 61.64 secs.
Varallo found his feet late to head Mujallad into fourth.
The R250 000 Cape Premier Yearling Sale graduate was bred by Favour Stud and is by Jay Peg out of the seven-time winning Wolfhound mare, Woelfin.
He has won 1 of his 2 starts and took his stakes account to R125 000.
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Gr3 Godolphin Barb Stakes (SAf-Gr3)
Scottsville, South Africa, April 30, R200k, 1100m, turf, good, 1.01.64
1 – WOLJAYRINE (SAF), 56.0, ch c 2, Jay Peg (SAF) – Woelfin (SAF) by Wolfhound (USA). Owner Mr T Y Lin & Ms Joelle Ng; Breeder Favour Stud; trainer VH Marshall; jockey M Byleveld
2 – Sir Frenchie (AUS), 60.0, b c 2, Choisir (AUS) – Volando (AUS) by Viscount (AUS)
3 – Varallo (SAF), 60.0, b c 2, Var (USA) – Covenant (SAF) by Western Winter (USA)
Margins: 1.00, 1.25, 0.10
