Flying Finish! Napoleon Dynamite sweeps through under Nooresh Juglall to win the Lightning Stakes
The gallant 7yo Napoleon Dynamite produced a grandstand flying finish at the Vaal on Tuesday to win the non- black type R125 000 Lightning Stakes run over 1000m in scintillating style.
It is not often that we see a horse win in this fashion over 1000m on the sand, and Mauritian born apprentice jockey Nooresh Juglall deserves the credit for keeping a cool head and riding a balanced finish on what looked a lost cause.
Napoleon Dynamite is a consistent but awkward fellow. The 1200m on the turf is his game, but the same distance on sand seems just out of his compass.
He was expected to be run off his feet in this feature over the 1000m and, with plenty of speed in the race, this was the case for most of the race.
The speedy El Cielo dashed into an early lead from Hang Fire and Polar Moon, with Sherman Brown hard at work on the fancied Mogok’s Desire, who never really got going.
At the 400m marker, Napoleon Dynamite was some ten lengths adrift and going nowhere.
With 300m to run Hang Fire looked dangerous as the rested Boss Cat came forward to challenge. The longshot Commissionerstreet was unwinding a smart looking finish down the inside and out of the blue Juglall produced Napoleon Dynamite wide out.
In a matter of strides he came forward to win going away by two lengths in a time of 58,85 secs.
The 45 to 1 shot Commissionerstreet stayed on well for second ahead of Boss Cat, who ran a cracker after a long rest.
Hang Fire faded late for fourth, while the only 3yo in the race Mogok’s Desire was never a threat.
The favourite Polar Moon ran stone last.
The Kumaran Naidoo trained Napoleon Dynamite has now won 8 times with 13 places from 40 outings. The former KZN based gelding is a versatile sort. This was his second win on the Vaal sand, and one other was registered at Flamingo Park, with five wins on the turf.
It was a second consecutive Lightning Stakes win for Naidoo, as Cape Winter won the race last year.
He took his stake earnings to R518 100 and was a R30 000 bargain buy at the old KZN Vintage sale held in March and April in 2006, 2007 and 2008.
The winner, who was saddled by assistant trainer Candice Dawson, was bred by Spring Valley Stud and is by Muhtafal and is out of the Badger Land mare, Dynamite Model.
