Gr3 Poinsettia S: Headstrong

Best handicap marks on the Vaal sand, Headstrong wins Gr3 on turf

Headstrong has achieved by some way her career best handicap marks on the Vaal sand, but she proved to be more than good enough to win a Graded race on turf when she captured the Poinsettia Stakes over 1200m at Clairwood on Sunday, writes MATTHEW LIPS.  Mike de Kock’s five-year-old didn’t appear to be particularly well treated off her current turf rating in this WFA event, but she’d finished second in a Turffontein Gr 3 handicap over 1160m at her penultimate start and was a well supported 33/10 favourite in a field of 10 for the Poinsettia.

Heading the market was Romantic Moon, who seemed to find 1000m too short when well beaten in a Listed event on the same course three weeks earlier.  A winner of five races from seven attempts over 1200m, Romantic Moon went off as the 2/1 favourite to register her first black type success.  Dance With Al was the 5/1 third favourite in her first KZN appearance of 2011.

Headstrong lagged some way off the early pace as Roses For Lizzy and stable companion Romantic Moon both showed plenty of toe, with Poppins very prominent in the initial stages.  Dance With Al was a couple of lengths off the action as Romantic Moon delivered her challenge and tried to kick for home inside the last 300m.  However, the favourite was under heavy pressure racing into the final furlong as Headstrong began to make a strong forward move and Dance With Al also threw down her challenged.  Headstrong quickened far too well for them all, however, and stretched away over the final 100m under Anthony Delpech to win by 1.75 lengths from Dance With Al,  with Romantic Moon appearing to have no excuses this time before finishing a further long head away in third.  Roses For Lizzy was half-a-length behind her more fancied stablemate in fourth.

Headstrong didn’t quite see out 1600m when fading to finish a well beaten sixth in the Gr 1 Empress Club Stakes at Turffontein twelve days before the Poinsettia, but she is highly effective over 1200/1400m and looks to be better than ever at this stage of her career.  When asked whether the Gr 1 SA Fillies Sprint over 1200m at Scottsville on May 30^th could be on the agenda, Anthony Delpech remarked that “it would be a nice race for her.”  The temptation to try and get a Gr 1 win under the girth of the Irish-bred mare must be a strong one indeed for her owner, Mary Slack’s Wilgersbosdrift stud, but whatever happens Headstrong already shapes up as a welcome future addition to the farm’s broodmare band.

A daughter of excellent sire Pivotal, Headstrong is out of the unraced Pursuit Of Love mare Rash and has won nine times from 19 starts for R600 325 in stakes.