Trainer Corne Spies travelled down from Randjesfontein for Sunday’s R150 000 Listed The Sledgehammer at Hollywoodbets Scottsville, only to see the hopes of his 3yo Prophet knocked for a six late in the race.
While Glen Kotzen’s progressive 3yo Lord William was full value for his half length victory, his rider Ashton Arries was given a seven day holiday after failing to ensure that he did not cause interference to the luckless Prophet, who had to ease off the heels of the winner at the 200m.
Ashton Arries got Lord William home – but it wasn’t an impressive ride (Pic – Candiese Lenferna)
Prophet may have had place prospects at best, but it was not a nice incident to watch and could have ended badly for Marco Van Rensburg.
Arries put his head down and rode for his life with the crop in the right hand. But while his mount was shifting away from the stick, he made no visible effort to straighten until the very final stages – maybe he was lucky to only get 7 days!
Watch the latter stage replay here:
Klawervlei Stud’s homebred Cape Guineas winner William Longsword has enjoyed a cracking run of success of late and he produced another feature race winner when Lord William, third in the Listed Kings Cup last time out, claimed his maiden stakes score with a game display on Sunday.
Lord William (5-2) was the eventual tote favourite and beat stablemate Flying Bull (16-1) by a half length in a time of 106,14 secs.
Prophet was beaten into fifth and 2,95 lengths off the winner.
Third in both the Gr3 World Sports Betting Langerman and Listed TAB Somerset 1200 at two, the Maine Chance Farms bred Lord William has now won three times from 12 starts for stakes of R296 800 and he looks unlikely to stop here.
His in-form sire William Longsword also enjoyed feature race success when his blue-blooded daughter Virginia Sweet captured the recent Listed East Cape Oaks.
A half-brother to the Gr1 winning dam of this season’s Gr1 Pongracz Cape Flying Championship winner Gimme A Prince, William Longsword has four lots on offer at this week’s National Yearling Sale, including a filly (Lot 46) out of Oaks Trial winner Salutation and a full-brother (Lot 89) to Listed Secretariat Stakes victress Bon Vivant.
