Punters suffered a body blow when Nordic Breeze, the lesser fancied of the Justin Snaith coupling, turned the tables on her previously unbeaten odds-on stablemate, to win the R200 000 Gr3 Kenilworth Fillies Nursery in perfect racing weather at the flagship Cape track on Saturday.
Nordic Breeze (Robert Khathi) stays on strongly to beat The Merry Widow (Bernard Fayd’herbe) and Felicity Flyer (Richard Fourie) in the feature (Pic – Wayne Marks)
Nordic Breeze was the outsider of the eight horse field but showed scant respect for her 6-10 stablemate The Merry Widow and proved her last run, when slow and eased in running in the Perfect Promise Sprint, to be all wrong.
Jockey Robert Khathi doesn’t always get the prime choice of rides, but he can ride with any of his peers, and after getting Sublime Lady home to win the fourth in a rousing finish, he wasn’t waiting for a consolation prize here.
Robert Khathi – good ride
After Chill Baby Chill had been a reluctant pacemaker, the fancied The Merry Widow moved up menacingly down the centre at the 300m marker. But Khathi was lurking down the inside and he grabbed a match winning advantage as he bounced Nordic Breeze into the lead.
Inside the 200m, Nordic Breeze continued to gallop powerfully and she held The Merry Widow to a half length in a time of 73,31 secs.
The game Felicity Flyer stayed on nicely for third in the Van Huyssteen silks, another 0,30 lengths back.
The Mike Bass-trained second favourite Live Life ran a disappointing race to finish out of the money.
The first 2yo to win in open company in the Cape this term, Nordic Breeze was purchased for R200 000 by Ken Truter off the 2015 CTS Lanzerac Ready To Run Sale and made it 2 wins from 3 starts for stakes of R175 000.
She was bred by Normandy Stud and is by Windrush out of the unraced Northern Guest mare, Nordic Vine.
She hails from a decent winning family and is a full sister to the versatile Mike Bass group performer, Rushing Wind.
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Gr3 Kenilworth Fillies Nursery (SAf-Gr3)
Kenilworth, South Africa, May 28, R200k, 1200m, turf, good, 1.13.31
1 – NORDIC BREEZE (SAF), 60.0, b f 2, Windrush (USA) – Nordic Vine (SAF) by Northern Guest (USA). Owner Mesdames V A Foulkes & Jane Truter & Mr K P Truter; Breeder Normandy Stud; trainer J Snaith; jockey R Khathi
2 – The Merry Widow (SAF), 60.0, b f 2, Captain Al (SAF) – Miss Kiri (SAF) by Jallad (USA)
3 – Felicity Flyer (SAF), 60.0, ch f 2, Noordhoek Flyer (SNL) – The Zone (SAF) by Restructure
Margins: 0.50, 0.30, 1.75
