Easy. PiereStrydom gears Seal down at the line to win the Hennenman Memorial Pinnacle Stakes
Gavin Van Zyl’s very smart stayer Seal registered a third win from his last four starts when he came home strongly in the R115 000 Hennenman Memorial Pinnacle Stakes run over 2600m at Turffontein on Sunday.
The race was named in honour of the memory of the 24 racing folk who perished when a United Air flight crashed near the hamlet of Hennenman on its return from a racemeeting in Bloemfontein on 12 April 1988.
With the scratching of the talented S’Il Vous Plait, Seal was backed to the exclusion of the rest, and he duly obliged in a field of five runners.
The old axiom of the smaller the field, the bigger the upset, did not apply in this event, but winning jockey Piere Strydom had something to say about the stress of riding a bright red odds on shot, for the benefit of the grandstand jockeys amongst us.
Looking a touch relieved in the post race interview, Strydom said that his blood went cold at the 600m marker, as he considered the starting price of 2 to 10 with the way the son of Silvano was going.
In a tribute to assistant trainer Chesney Van Zyl, Strydom said that it was only Seal’s class and heart that got him home, and said it was quite remarkable that the young trainer had kept the horse on the boil for so long.
Pace was always going to be the one mix that could change the taste of this particular cocktail, and with nobody keen to show the way, it was Mirage Drive who showed the way from Seal and Winter Desire.
At the 1400m marker Marco Van Rensburg took Winter Desire up to lead from Mirage Drive with Seal loping along in third.
Turning for home Winter Desire continued to stretch them as Strydom gave Seal a smack or two down the neck. Into the final 300m Seal got into his stride and charged clear to win without any glamour by about 2,2x lengths in a time of 167,12 secs.
Mirage Drive stayed on best for second, with Winter Desire a further seven lengths back in third.
The lack of depth of the field was illustrated by the fact that the fifth and last runner to finish, Campo De Santana, was some 35 lengths behind.
Bred by Cape veterinarian Dr Ian Heyns, Seal is by Silvano out of the unraced Rambo Dancer mare Prestine Performer. Seal cost R210 000 on the National Two Year Old Sale of his year, and has won from 1200m to 3000m.
Seal registered his eighth win with 12 places from his 28 starts and took his career earnings to R1 821 337.
With the Vodacom Durban July and the Gold Cup his likely short term targets, it will be interesting to see where Seal goes next. He has had only five runs this year, but some of his races have been a lot tougher than what he encountered here.
