The talented Lockheed Jetstar looks a horse to follow. Lightly raced, the 5yo chalked up his seventh win from 14 starts when grabbing the ascendancy late to win the R135 000 Listed Thukela Handicap run over a mile at Greyville after the July.
Lockheed Jetstar had beaten his stablemate Rake’s Chestnut giving him 6kgs at his last start and the pundits who took a line through that 3yo’s Daily News second finish would have been motivated to grab some of the 28 to 10 available here.
While Rake’s Chestnut flopped in the July, there had to be some merit in the form and Anton Marcus rode a typically polished race to get Lockheed Jetstar home.
Still smarting from the pain of the July, MJ Byleveld came out firing and took Chestnut’s Rocket out to lead and he was still in front at the 300m marker.
But the son of Horse Chestnut was shortening his stride as One Cool Dude and Lockheed Jetstar came at him.
After a short tussle with the consistent One Cool Dude down the straight, Lockheed Jetstar asserted his superiority and drew ahead to win at 28 to 10 by a quarter length in a time of 94,24 secs.
The win gave Marcus and Geoff Woodruff the second leg of a double after Master Sabina had won the tabGOLD 2200.
This was Marcus’ third of four winners on the day.
The recent Cup Trial winner One Cool Dude was giving the winner 3,5kgs and should not be long in winning again.
The grey Oratorio gelding Ottimo nabbed the free-running Chestnut’s Rocket and ran into third.
Lockheed Jetstar was another July day winner bred by Maine Chance Farms.
He is a 5yo gelding by Jet Master out of the eight-time winning Jallad mare, Loyal Linda. The latter was Justin Snaith’s first Gr1 winner when winning the Garden Province Stakes under Bernard Fayd’herbe on July day in 2005.
Lockheed Jetstar is a R1,4 million National Yearling Sale purchase and clocked up total stakes of R462 425 with his seventh win with 3 places from 14 starts.
He looks to still have plenty left in the tank.