Gathering Fame storms home to beat Omaticaya (Bay Media)
Jockey MJ Byleveld grabbed the opportunity of a rare engagement for the visiting Dennis Drier yard with both hands when he produced the Lammerskraal owned and bred Jet Master filly Gathering Fame with a sustained late effort to win the R150 000 Listed Jamaica Handicap run over 1700m at Kenilworth on Saturday.
The Dennis Drier Summer Of Champions season has been one of ups and downs but the seasoned horseman had the lightly raced Gathering Fame fit and ready in her first Cape start.
The filly has been restricted to the Greyville polytrack and had followed up her maiden win with a solid winning effort on the same surface in lowly rated handicap company.
With regular stable jockey Sean Cormack unable to make the 53kgs, Byleveld stepped into the breach and did the rest as Gathering Fame came out fresh after a 17 week break to score her first turf victory and collect some valuable paddock-boosting black type in style.
Can Cope kept them honest ensuring a good gallop all the way around as Gathering Fame was relaxed some eight lengths off the leaders.
After the disappointment of losing the earlier feature in the boardroom, high riding heavyweight Bernard Fayd’herbe (who rode two winners earlier on in the afternoon) hit the front at the 300m marker on the Kotzen-trained Omaticaya, who was in full flight under her top weight.
But MJ Byleveld had other ideas and he produced the lightly raced Gathering Fame down the rail with a strong effort.
The 4yo showed her versatility with her first win on the turf as she bounced away to head Omaticaya and go on strongly to win by 0,75 lengths in a time of 108,15 secs.
She had drifted from 3 to 1 to 11 to 2 by the off.
Omaticaya stayed on nicely in second to withstand the late charge of Cat And The Moon, with Jeweller’s Joy catching the eye in fourth.
The Lammerskraal bred Gathering Fame is a 4yo daughter of Jet Master out of the three-time winning Western Winter mare, Googol.
She has now won 3 races with 2 places from 5 starts with stakes of R198 750.
