Joey Soma’s lightly raced 5yo Back In Business showed his class with an eyecatching victory in the R175 000 Betway Listed Spring Spree Stakes at Turffontein on Saturday.
The 1200m contest on the draw-sensitive Turffontein inside course 1200m track was the first Highveld feature of the new 2024/25 season and proved a popular one for punters, as the well-supported 15-10 favourite moved up effortlessly under Muzi Yeni to haul in the free-striding Cliff Hanger (25-2) to score a really good win in a time of 70,9secs.
Muzi’s easiest feature winner in some time as Back In Business floats clear (Pic – JC Photos)
The 4yo Cliff Hanger showed oodles of speed for most of the trip, while the recently gelded Zinovi (8-1) put in a promising effort for third under topweight of 62kgs.
From his pole position draw, Tony Peter’s Silent War (25-2) rounded off the quartet.
Raced by ANOA (Pty) Ltd, whose nominee is Andria Dannhauser, the winner was bred by Klawervlei Stud and is a son the farm’s Captain Al stallion William Longsword out of the three-time winning Var mare, Enchanting Cathy.
A winner of 5 of his 10 starts with 2 places, Back In Business, a R325 000 National Yearling Sale purchase, was registering his maiden stakes success and took his stakes bank to R382 000. He looks to have plenty more to come.
Muzi Yeni rode three winners on the day to move into the number one position on the national jockeys log.
The Turffontein Pick 6 month-end carryover of R500 000 was projected to hit R3 million. The estimation fell some way short, the pool getting to a rather disappointing R2 220 786.
The Hollywoodbets Durbanville Pick 6 pool on the same afternoon paled in comparison, reaching a net R476 051.
