Post race information and news relating to major horse races. We review and analyse how these races played out and discuss the details relating to performance and any other interesting facts people in the horse racing industry find useful.
Bulsara has always threatened to be a seriously good horse, repeatedly finishing within a few lengths of many of the best around, and he made short work of beating ten rivals in the London News over 1800m on the inner track at Turffontein on Sunday.
Mother Russia will be a popular favourite on January 29th to go one better on her second place finish in the J & B Met of 2010 after she ran out a highly impressive winner of the L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate over 1600m at Kenilworth on Saturday.
The Justin Snaith yard’s terrific Cape summer season continued unabated when three-year-old Emerald Cove gave some high class older females something to remember her by with a 20/1 surprise in the TBA Paddock Stakes over 1800m at Kenilworth on Saturday. The first Gr 1 event of 2011 was the third race contested at the highest level in the Cape this season after the Fillies Guineas and the Guineas – both of which also went the way of the Snaith boys.
2011 is still in its infancy, but there may not be a closer finish to a Graded race this year than the cavalry charge that concluded the Peninsula Handicap over 1800m at Kenilworth on Wednesday. A tick under four lengths covered the first fourteen runners to cross the line in a race which probably had the handicappers whooping with delight, a joy that would be have been shared by bookmakers and only a few punters after 40/1 outsider Lion In Winter came from last on the turn to snatch a narrow success.
Covenant registered her second Graded race success in less than a month when easily taking out the Sceptre Stakes over 1200m at Kenilworth on Sunday. The three-year-old had won the Gr 2 Southern Cross Stakes over 200m less four weeks previously, and in some style, but Sunday’s race marked her first attempt at 1200m and some pundits had a few question marks over whether she would see it out. Now they know.
The first Graded event of 2011 produced a humdinger of a finish when Blue Voyager edged out KZN visitor Jinzo by a nostril to win the Lebelo Sprint (handicap) over 1000m on Turffontein’s standside course
Precedent bounced right back to her best form with a hard-fought success in the Flamboyant Stakes for fillies and mares over 1600m, which this year was staged on the inner course at Scottsville on Sunday. The race was scheduled for its traditional home at Greyville on Saturday night, but heavy rain through the week left the central Durban track unfit for racing.
Boxing Day was a red letter day for progeny of the late Strike Smartly, who sired the winners of both Gr 3 events across South Africa, and it was Rich Strike who set the ball rolling when he captured the Christmas Handicap over 1600m at Clairwood
The second half of the Boxing Day Strike Smartly Gr3 double was delivered by Two Strikes, when he ran out a game winner of the Cape Summer Stayers Handicap at Kenilworth’s “twilight” meeting on Sunday evening.
Solo Traveller gave a virtuoso performance when he ran out a relatively narrow but convincing winner of the Bloodstock SA Cape Guineas at Kenilworth on Saturday, leading the way home ahead of stable companion Run For It in a dream result for the Justin Snaith yard. In the process he gave his stable and his jockey Bernard Fayd’herbe a perfect score two-from-two score in Cape Town’s Gr 1 races contested so far this summer after the Cape Fillies Guineas triumph of his stablemate Ebony Flyer
Great things have always been predicted for Past Master from those who know him best, and the gelding took to sprinting like a duck to water when dropped to 1200m for Saturday’s WPOTA Diadem Stakes over 1200m at Kenilworth. Now it may be true that South Africa’s sprinting cupboard is a bit bare in the absence of J J The Jet Plane, but Past Master nevertheless demolished some very good rivals indeed in the Diadem, where ten of the twelve starters were past Graded Stakes winners, and looks to be versatile as well as gifted,
It is eerie to think that there would have been no Siren’s Call, Sound Of Warning, or for that matter Call To Unite, had fate not decreed that Enchanted Cove follow her dam to South Africa, and that Peter de Beyer had the foresight to return Elusive Fort back home from the States as well!
There’s lots more to play for!
