Dressed In Cotton flies up under Gerrit Schlechter (Bay Media)
Veteran jockey Gerrit Schlechter produced the magic for the Hassen Adams team when he introduced the flying Dressed In Cotton in ideal conditions late in proceedings to win the R150 000 Val De Ra Listed Southeaster Sprint at Kenilworth on Saturday.
The result is not one that would have had many punters smiling on an afternoon that looked likely to dish up favourable results.
But after the free-striding Captain Of All had looked to be cantering inside the 300m and stopped in his tracks with, at the same time Richard Fourie producing the consistent and well-backed Daring Dave looking a winner down the centre, Schlechter had the last laugh as he got Dressed In Cotton to fly up late.
Experience counts – Gerrit Schlechter produced the magic.
Schlechter had the handily weighted Dressed In Cotton covered up into the strong headwind as the rest blitzed out front. The well-backed Daring Dave (7 to 10) was also more restrained than he usually is and he was settled some six lengths off the pace.
The race changed dramatically into the final 200m with Dressed In Cotton getting up to win by a short head in a time of 65,18 secs.
Villa Del Largo ran a cracker to storm home and dead-heat for second with his stablemate, Daring Dave, while The West Is Wide stayed on into fourth.
Trained by Darryl Hodgson, and racing in the silver and blue Adams silks, Dressed In Cotton was bred by Adams Racing and is a son of Jallad out of the one-time winning Al Mufti mare, Cotton Cove.
He went through the National Yearling Sale ring and was knocked down for R240 000.
He has now won won 6 races from 28 starts with 10 places and R412 320 in stakes.
