Longstanding owner Dave Shawe and trainer Lucky Houdalakis owned the seventh renewal of the R500 000 World Sports Betting Grand Heritage at the Vaal on Saturday when their accomplished coupling of Duke Of Sussex and the year younger Dyce filled the first two places in the bumper field handicap run over 1475m.
Hailed as ‘South Africa’s greatest betting race’ by host operator 4Racing, the Grand Heritage hosted 27 runners, with TAB paying place dividends down to sixth finisher. The quartet dividend of over R108 000 spoke volumes of the result.
Vaal specialist Duke Of Sussex (JP van der Merwe) is too strong for stablemate (Dyce) who was given every shout by Muzi Yeni (Pic – JC Photos)
While his Gr2 winning stablemate Dyce, having his third run after 16 months off the track was the more fancied of the pair, the consistent Vaal specialist Duke Of Sussex carried too many guns as he was relaxed in the early stampede, before being set alight down the outside by JP van der Merwe.
In an exciting run down to the wire, the orange and black Shawe silks dominated as the 14-1 Duke Of Sussex held a half length advantage to beat the favourite Dyce (15-2) in a time of 88,88 secs. The exacta paid R168-30 on the tote.
Philasande Mxoli produced the trifecta knockout, with the 33-1 Whafeef staying on in a tight finish to run third, ahead of visiting rider Grant van Niekerk on Outofthedarkness (25-2).
Vaal trainer Lucky Houdalakis receives the smart trophy from WSB’s Steve Karam (Pic – JC Photos)
Former Met winning jockey JP van der Merwe is working hard, travelling everywhere and certainly reaping the rewards!
He was later to also ride the Heritage Consolation winner Fateful Day for Gavin van Zyl. That capped a great week after he rode a double at Turffontein on Tuesday 6 December and a double at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth on 8 December. None of the six winners were particularly fancied either! The form jockey is engaged at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth on Sunday – and could be worth following.
The winner was a R425 000 Cape Premier Yearling Sale buy and has now won 8 races with 5 places from 17 starts for stakes of R760 250.
Bred by Drakenstein, he is by the champion farm’s deceased Danehill sire Duke Of Marmalade, out of the one-time winning Trippi mare, Pemba Island.
