Topostwego beats stablemate All The Bids to win the Kimberley Nursery (JC Photos)
Corne Spies has won the R100 000 Kimberley Nursery more times than he cares to remember and he showed again that he has few peers in the training ranks when it comes to getting the 2yo’s to perform. He saddled the first two home in Monday’s 1400m non black-type race, and also banked the fourth cheque with a maiden.
Spies came into the feature with a four-way coupling and punters went in boots and all for the Summerhill Stud bred Muhtafal gelding Topostwego, who had shown excellent turf feature collateral down in KZN.
Backed into the red and encouraged further by the late withdrawal of the fancied Dorrie Sham trained Modus Tollendi, Topostwego was a popular winner after getting the better of a short tussle with his stablemate All The Bids, who was piloted by Fransie Naude.
Francois Herholdt stood in for the indisposed Fanie Chambers and rode a confident race on the gelding to win well.
Topostwego put up a workmanlike performance and stayed on to beat All The Bids by 1,25 lengths in a time of 87,81 secs.
The winner had drifted from 7 to 10 to start at 13 to 10 before the off.
Corne Spies saddled 1-2 in the Nursery
David Rahilly’s Carpocrates filly Razzle My Tazzle, still a maiden, stormed through late to grab third a further 3,50 lengths behind and ousted the third of the Spies runners, Atso’s Scheme, into fourth.
It was a very spread out bunch that came home , with the maidens Said And Done, On The Thames and Blue Pools finishing somewhere on the bend and finding themselves way out of their depth.
Topostwego was bred by Summerhill Stud out of the three-time winning Northern Guest mare, Tristram’s Frolic.
A R400 000 National Yearling Sale graduate, he has now won 2 of his 9 starts with 4 places and stakes of R188 375.
Topostwego looks capable of training on into a decent 3yo.
Dorrie Sham was crowned Northern Cape champion trainer on the afternoon, while Muzi Yeni rode 50 local winners and took the title of champion jockey.
