Easy does it – Light The Lights comes home in a canter (Coastal Photos)
Paarl trainer Glen Kotzen and high-riding jockey Greg Cheyne survived a nail-biting moment in the final 200m of the Listed Racing Association Stakes at Fairview on Friday, to deliver the goods for punters. It was clear a long way out that the best horse in the race was going to win, but things almost went awry.
Despite giving Greg Cheyne a hard time on the way to post, the odds-on and slung in on the handicap Light The Lights came back the proverbial dream.
Cheyne and Kotzen have been on fire as a combination in the past month and have formed a formidable duo.
Greg Cheyne had Hugo Hattingh’s handsome colt settled some eight lengths off and one from last, as Pacyano led Arniston and Shinning Day into the straight.
Angled out for his run Light The lights cruised up to the leaders as Arniston drifted into his path under pressure.
For a horrifying stride or two it looked like things would go pear-shaped but when you’re hot you’re hot, and the brimming-with-confidence Cheyne got out of it like good jockeys on good horses tend to do.
For a moment it looked for all the world as if Greg Cheyne and Light The Lights would actually plough straight through Arniston, as the Cape jockey hesitated for a moment to allow his opponent to drift on his way, and with a split second reserved option (if we are reading Cheyne’s body language correctly) to go down the Snaith horse’s inside.
But things ended well as the 6 to 10 favourite Light The Lights eventually found his stride again and he drew clear on his chosen path down the outside to win with ease.
Greg Cheyne – super confident ride
He beat the staying on one-paced Arniston by 2,25 lengths in a time of 97,54 secs, with the longshot Rushing Lark shunting home nicely a further 2,75 lengths back into third at 66 to 1.
He shaded the pacesetting Pacyano, for whom commentator Bumpie Schoeman appears to have a soft spot, judging by his salutary comment.
The second favourite Shinning Day, was full of silly tricks at the start, produced no finish and eventually plodded into fifth, to make it a blank day for what looked a reasonable Vaughan Marshall double on the cards, with the promising Zinnavar also running out of the bank in the previous race.
Light The Lights is a son of deceased champion sire Western Winter out of the six-time winning Northern Guest mare, First Arrival.
That makes the winner a half-brother to Snaith’s exported Gr1 winner, In The First Lane (Jet Master).
Light The Lights was bred by Hallmark Thoroughbreds and was a R460 000 National Yearling Sale purchase.
He took his stakes earnings to R216 300 and has now won 2 races from 7 starts with 4 places. His sole unplaced effort was his creditable fifth behind Harry’s Son in the Gr1 Premiers Champion Stakes in Champions Season.
The most successful combinations on the day was the Muzi Yeni-Grant Paddock and the Grant Van Niekerk-Yvette Bremner teams who registered doubles.
