It’s a shock as 33-1 Memphis Mafia (JP van der Merwe) comes home easily to win (Pic: Coastal Photos)
PE trainer Dorrie Sham’s yard is in a rich vein of form and she bred and trained the winner of the R150 000 Listed Racing Association Stakes run over a mile on a welcome turf meeting at Fairview on Friday. The 33-1 Memphis Mafia took a while to register a maiden win, but he followed up on that like a true professional and a horse who will win plenty more.
Dorrie Sham – lovely double and her yard is in bright form
There was drama at the start of the 3yo feature with the fancied local hope Nottinghamshire being withdrawn after delaying the start. It could not be argued that the starter didn’t stretch a point and give him more than enough opportunity and the majority of his opposition would have dozed off in the time they were forced to stand.
This reduced the field to ten runners , with Vaughan Marshall’s raider Kemal Kavur starting favourite at 19-10.
Struben led early, with the good looking Kemal Kavur nicely placed in second, with Cruzcampo further back. At this stage Memphis Mafia was relaxed well back in the field.
Into the home run, Struben quickly came back to his field as Kemal Kavur raced against the steel and came forward powerfully.
At the 250m marker MJ Byleveld and Kemal Kavur looked a likely winner, but Memphis Mafia was switched out and came home strongly, as Cruzcampo ran into his tail and hit traffic late.
It was race over in a matter of strides as Memphis Mafia powered home to win by two lengths in a time of 98,97 secs.
JP van der Merwe – great ride
Kemal Kavur stayed on well for second, while Cruzcampo ran a gutsy race to hold on for third.
The rest were well beaten, with Cuban Emerald giving Andrew Fortune a torrid time and fading out to nothing.
Memphis Mafia was bred by his trainer Dorrie Sham and is by Lecture out of the four-time winning Special Preview mare, Olympic Special.
He has won 2 races and run 6 places from ten starts with stakes of R183 675.
Ironically, Memphis Mafia had taken the longest of the lot to shed his maiden, but he proved here that he had been rather unlucky – with a good few hard luck seconds!
Dorrie Sham registered a double with Karl Zechner booting the consistent Plain Of Wisdom home in the first.
Alan Greeff and Greg Cheyne enjoyed a double on the afternoon – but probably wouldn’t have been happy with a few of their fancied runners producing below-par performances.
