Dean Kannemeyer is excited about the prospects of Mike and Norma Rattray’s Soft Falling Rain colt, Waterberry Lane.
The Wilgerbosdrift & Mauritzfontein product showed an electrifying turn of foot to win the R300 000 Durban Gr2 Golden Horsehoe at Hollywoodbets Greyville on Saturday.
The Gatecrasher Stakes placer made up lengths in the short home straight under stable jockey Keagan de Melo at 8-1 to beat the highly regarded AJ’s Captain (14-1) by 0,70 lengths in a time of 84,82 secs.
Glen Kotzen’s three-time winner Good Traveller (6-1) did well from a wide draw to run third.
Waterberry Lane (Keagan de Melo) is led in by Julius Mbungendlu and Nicolette Roscoe (Pic – Candiese Lenferna)
“It was a bit of a rough race early on and I felt he had a bit too much to do at about the 300m. But he confirmed his recent improvement when he turned it on to win well,” said Kannemeyer, who last won this contest when still ranked a Gr1 with Fred Crabbia’s Afrikaburn.
Dean explained that the team purchased Waterberry Lane at the Mystico Yearling Sale, where they paid R250 000 for him.
“The secret with this horse is that he has just grown and developed physically like we had hoped him to. Sometimes one finds a horse that ticks the boxes at that time – but then he just doesn’t develop like we would have wanted him to. Waterberry Lane has gone the right way. He has improved beautifully in three months and can only get stronger and better from here. Mike and Norma Rattray have been staunch supporters of ours for many many years. I’m pleased to have given them a winner on such a great day,” he added.
As to Waterberry Lane’s future plans, Dean says that he will be nominated for the Gr1 Premiers Champion Stakes at Hollywoodbets Greyville on 31 July. Entries close on 12 July.
The son of Soft Falling Rain was sent to Jane Thomas’ Far End Training after Mystico and has only ever raced in KZN out of the Kannemeyer Summerveld Satellite yard.
“I don’t have as big a pool of 2yo’s this season as previous years. But the quality is certainly there and I am looking forward to the Cape Summer. But in the immediate future, we will see how the draws go and how they progress for the rest of this month.”
Dean explained that his experiment to undertake his string’s AHS innoculations in KZN last season with the sun on their backs had set him back time-wise for the Cape summer.
“Given the programme and the second shot timing, we only got going mid September last year. So we will go back to Cape Town in August and get the housekeeping done.”
Waterberry Lane is a son of the international champion Soft Falling Rain (National Assembly) out of the Fort Wood one-time winner, Gain Ground.
It seems surreal that he won his maiden at his second start at 50-1!
He has won 2 races with 2 places from 5 starts for stakes of R249 250.
Watch the replay here:
