Philasande Mxoli spoilt the Piere Strydom double celebrations when he produced Paul Matchett’s 33-1 Moonlight Trader with a finely timed effort to grab the top honours by a proverbial nose in the R400 000 Betway Gr3 Graham Beck Stakes at Turffontein on Saturday.
Strydom went pillar to post a half hour earlier in the ASSM Racing Syndicate silks to win the Starling Stakes and he tried similar tactics on Mike de Kock’s Wolf Mountain.
Philasande Mxoli (striped cap) gets Moonlight Trader up to pip Piere Strydom and Wolf Mountain in a thrilling finish (Pic – JC Photos)
Getting a keen break and dictating matters, Strydom looked to have them beaten at the 50m marker until Moonlight Trader (33-1) powered up the outside.
At the line it was a bad heads down for the Striker fans as Moonlight Trader got the nod from the judge to beat Wolf Mountain (14-1) in a time of 84,88 secs for the 1400m.
Legend Of Arthur (9-4) caught the eye, flying up from nowhere for third. His fancied stablemate The Specialist fought his rider and ran the worst race of his career in the process, to run out of the money.
There were only 3459,54 Pick 6 combinations alive after the halfway marker, with the minimum dividend of R1060,50 suggesting a telephone number dividend.
Raced by Matthew and Anthony Kapnias, the winner was bred by Big Sky Ranch and is a son of Dubawi sire Erupt out of the once winning Silvano mare, Dalaal.
A R225 000 National Yearling Sale purchase, the winner took his stakes earnings to R406 438 with his third win and 4th place from 10 starts.
