Johannesburg visitor Doing It For Dan stretched the patience of the starter at the jump of the R150 000 Listed Umngeni Handicap at Greyville on Saturday and his antics set the tone for an upset result.
Doing It For Dan – delayed the start and then still found a place cheque
Day one of the Gold Cup Festival Of Racing was a tough one for punters.
With Doing It For Dan refusing to load, his opponents were getting restless and the biggest knock came for backers of the topweighted Attenborough, who fell asleep in the stalls and lost many lengths as the field was released. He was declared under starter’s orders.
Quickest out was Dan’s stablemate Hashtag Strat, who came out the stalls flying as is her custom and she led My Pal Al and Effortless Reward, who had to be reshod at the start.
Into the home straight My Pal Al galloped powerfully, but had no answers for the handsome grey 7 to 1 shot Rodney, who scored a long overdue maiden stakes success when he powered home late in the hands of Frant van Niekerk to grab the free running My Pal Al and win going away by 1,50 lengths in a nice time of 57,59 secs.
Grant van Niekerk has Rodney in command
After delaying the start, Doing It For Dan rubbed salt in the wounds of many PA punters, by flying late into third.
The fancied Drier pair of Horse Guards and Lloyd’s Legacy never showed and finished out of the money.
The Candice Bass-Robinson trained Rodney has won 3 races with 9 places from 19 starts for stakes of R376 675.
A R500 000 2014 Cape Premier Yearling Sale purchase, the Highlands-bred winner is a son of Gainesway Stud’s leading North American sire Tapit (Pulpit) out of the unraced US bred daughter of Harry Hotspur’s SA champion Harry’s Charm, Granny Leah (Orientate).
