Show Off! Keagan De Melo pushes Showmetheway out to win the Listed Golden Loom H’cap from Welwitschia
KwaZulu-Natal trainers are an often maligned sector of the SA horseracing community. But Summerveld-based Mark Dixon pulled one back for the perennial underdogs when he produced the never-say-die Muhtafal gelding Showmetheway, to win the R135 000 Listed Golden Loom Handicap run over 1000m under the lights at Turffontein on Saturday.
The race named in honour of the brilliant brown gelding,who was affectionately nicknamed ‘Goofy’ and trained by the late legend, Buddy Maroun, produced an appropriate show of true speed.
And Golden Loom really was the king of speed on the Highveld, in what was widely accepted as the golden age of sprinting. He raced for nine seasons and chalked up his final race victory at the ripe age of 10. In all, he had 78 starts, won 22 of them and was placed 37 times, for stakes of R2.8 million.
His owners, the brothers Raymond, Budwa and Michael Abrosie were, born and bred in Benoni and moved a little closer to Johannesburg in 1975 when they bought The Executive, men’s outfitters in Bedfordview. They were to go on and enjoy astonishing success and good fortune after taking their colour privileges in 1977. The family was represented on track to present the trophy on Saturday.
Fine Fettle
By The Book. The toast of KZN, Mark Dixon trained the winner
Dominic Zaki produced the progressive Var speed machine Valberg in fine fettle and Piere Strydom sat dead-still on the odds-on favourite as he carried his impressive speed into a comfortable two length lead early from Gold Site, Mannequin and with Welwitschia and Showmetheway, who had bounced and was travelling early, settled a few lengths back.
At the 300m marker Valberg continued to roll, as Delpech produced Welwitschia with her customary late dash. But it was Showmetheway who ran on best down the middle as Valberg shortened his stride late.
He galloped on powerfully under 19yo apprentice Keagan De Melo to win going away by a half-length in a time of 56,20 secs from Welwitschia, who was conceding him 10kgs! The time was some way off Mythical Flight’s course record of 54,96 secs.
Promising
De Melo, who represented South Africa at an international meeting in Qatar earlier this year,travels with Tellytrack’s Nico Kritsiotis to Abu Dhabi in the UAE this week to ride in a race-meeting there.
He is a confident and balanced young rider who has forged a lucrative relationship with the Dixon gelding. De Melo was registering his fifth straight win since Dixon opted to fit the world-changing blinkers.
Keagan de Melo. Promising young jockey rode Showmetheway
Dixon who commended De Melo for travelling up on Thursday afternoon to give the gelding a ‘good blow-out’, said that he had not done a lot with him since his last outing at end September.
The Summerhill Stud-bred Showmetheway has terrifically consistent form. He has won 5 of his 8 starts with 1 place, for earnings of R283 275.By Summerhill’s ‘General’, he is out of the lightly-raced Irish-bred Nashwan mare Nadira.
Owner Bruce Lin forked out R80 000 for the Ready To Run graduate, who was extremely well-placed in this race.
It will be interesting to see how he progresses when facing stronger sorts at more onerous weight conditions. For now, there is nothing wrong with five in a row.
