Sarve (Francois Naude) powers home to beat Choir Maiden in the Listed KZN Stakes
Trainer Corne Spies rounded off a terrific weekend with a feature double at Scottsville on Sunday. Favour Stud bred and owned Sarve was the big winner when she claimed some overdue black type with a smooth win in the R135 000 Listed KwaZulu-Natal Stakes.
Spies has been rattling on about all the rain that has interrupted much of his work, but there seems to be little wrong with his stable’s form at the moment.
His previously unplaced Silvano maiden Silvan Jazz lifted the honours when winning the R120 000 non black-type Sentinel Stakes after leading most of the way in the six-strong field.
Spies admitted afterwards that he had only left his filly in to let the race stand its ground. This must surely be a wake-up call to KZN trainers with the visitors departing with the first cheque of R75 000 and the runner-up prize of R24 000!
The stakes feature was the Listed KwaZulu-Natal Stakes and the versatile Sarve hammered the local flyers with a powerful display of speed and resolution.
She was amongst the leading trio as the pacy Clear Sailing led Pej, with Genial tucked in just off the action.
The race was wide open at the 400m marker as Caviar unwound down the outside with Garibondy looking for room to run.
But Francois Naude had done his homework and Sarve hit the front at the 200m, carrying too many guns as she went away to win well by 1,25 lengths – and on a day of quick times clocked 56,93 secs.
Choir Maiden showed a glimmer of a form revival after a 12 week break to finish second ahead of the fancied Garibondy who never really got into it.
Clear Sailing ran fourth after showing plenty interest for much of the race down the rail.
The favourite Pej could do no better than run fifth.
Jockey Francois Naude said that Sarve was a ‘tricky filly’ from day one and she had often been uptight.
“But she has come into her own and settled well. She won a good race,” he said.
Corne Spies – ‘I know what Sean Tarry felt like on Saturday!’
Trainer Corne Spies was all smiles and quipped: “Now I know what Sean Tarry felt like on Saturday!”
He said that he was pleased for his big supporters Favour Stud and said that the black type that Sarve had gained here had taken the pressure off.
Sarve is a winner of 5 races (3 on turf) with 7 places from 17 starts and took her earnings to R436 025.
The Favour Stud bred filly is by that solid sand producer Sarge out of the Waldoboro mare First Wave, who won four races over the sprints.
