Winning Form-sponsored jockey Charles Ndlovu produced a gem of a ride on the lesser fancied Alan Greeff runner to win the R200 000 Listed Breeders Guineas (Fillies) at Fairview on Friday on the 14-1 Europeana.
On an afternoon where the Greeff yard were in sparkling form with three winners, Ndlovu rode a beautifully judged race to keep the Foster bred and raced Europeana (33-1) out of trouble up the outside in the mile feature.
At the 200m, the odds-on favourite and Cape raider Queen Of Shadows was going up and down, with Tara Laing’s Zambaq (16-1) running strongly and looking a likely winner.
Charles Ndlovu drives Europeana ahead to beat Zambaq (Chase Maujean) in a good finish to the feature (Pic – Pauline Herman)
But Charles Ndlovu had other ideas and he rode Europeana with balance and confidence to hit the front and beat Zambaq by a length in a time of 98,56 secs.
Queen Of Shadows stayed on without fireworks for third a further 1,25 lengths adrift, with the winner’s stablemate Sweet The Sound (8-1) having no luck in running and grabbing fourth.
Bred by Alec Foster, the winner is by SA Champion sire Gimmethegreenlight (More Than Ready) out of the twice-winning Red Ransom mare, Excelsea.
Europeana was registering her first stakes success and her second win in total, with 7 places from 13 starts for stakes of R234 425.
The training honours on the day were shared by Gavin Smith and Alan Greeff with three winners apiece.
Greg Cheyne and Kyle Strydom rode a double each.
The Racing 240 television broadcast was plagued by picture and sound issues all afternoon on both the Dstv and streaming platform.
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