Champ. Anton Marcus rode four winners today.
It took eight races and a starting stall incident to baulk the winning streak of favourites at Scottsville on 8 January. Not bad going for a supposed goat track punting war-zone in good old Sleepy Hollow.
While training honours were evenly apportioned, champion jock Anton Marcus had a great afternoon after his Cape Guineas near miss yesterday, when he rode four winners for four different yards.
Marcus had a fifty percent strike at Kenilworth on Saturday with two winners from his four rides, but pushed the averages up nicely at Scottsville with four winners from his six mounts. That’s top stuff from a professional who operates without an agent, but who selects his rides with care and forethought.
Anthony Delpech went to post in the eighth race on the Mike De Kock trained Mozart’s Giovanni attempting to make it a rare red-letter favourite day. But things went wrong as the horses were being loaded for the MR71 Handicap when the unbeaten three year old grey reared and got himself tangled in the stalls. Delpech was seen darting for the safety of the rail while the grey thrashed before being released sans saddle and cantering back to the safety of the parade ring. With 21400 PA tickets riding on his back, the focus shifted to the new tote favourite Rule The Nation, who suddenly had the hopes of over 40 000 PA tickets riding on his back. Fortunately his young rider had no inkling of that and he stayed on for second behind a flying Punk Royale.
The Dixon horse started at around 11-1 and provided Stuart Randolph with a nice win after a quiet day at the office. He is a Martinelli and bred by Fen Tarbitt – the Modern Day fanatic being seldom heard of these days.
Sweet Win. My Jelly Bean(inside) beats Reign As Kings in the opener.
Corne Orffer got a rare one over Anthony Delpech in a desperately tight finish to the first race, a Maiden Juvenile Plate run over 1000m. Orffer partnered the obviously smart Announce colt My Jelly Bean, who came off two second places at his only career starts, to go to post at 7-10. Delpech looked to have got the better of the pacy Crabbia horse on the 17-10 De Kock first-timer Reign As Kings as he came to challenge the pacemaker in the final 200m. The bob of the heads and a never-say-die Orffer conspired to deny Delpech and De Kock though with the Var first-timer Johnnie Quid a mile back in third place.
Trainer Paul Lafferty had the last laugh after taking a ribbing by one or two posters on the popular ABC discussion forum, when he showed that he can train good horses and produced Markus Jooste’s Kahal colt Distinguished at a prohibitive 9-20 to score a decisive runaway win in the second race, a Maiden Plate over 1200m. The three year old Steve Sturlese & Summerhill Stud bred colt had run a cracker on debut and confirmed that as no fluke when providing our champion jockey with an armchair view of the Scottsville pavilion. Lafferty is convinced that his charge will need ground in future, so there may be some exciting times ahead.
Anthony Delpech earned his riding commission the hard way when he got the impressive Mike De Kock-trained Encosta De Lago gelding Rashaad up after a relentless push and scrub from around the 800m marker. The field in the Pick Six opener, a Maiden Plate over a mile, looked a bit thin beyond the favourite, but Sheikh Mohammed Bin Khalifa Al Maktoum’s Australian bred took forever to wind himself up and only got going late. He nevertheless won well, beating a flying New Resolution and an improving Gida.
Marcus for Markus! The Jooste exacta as Unannounced retains his unbeaten record.
Anton Marcus rode his fourth Jooste winner of the weekend when he got the upwardly mobile Unannounced to rally and hold off his stablemate Ice Axe, to win the Conditions Plate over 1200m. The second Australian bred to win on the day, the Charles Laird trained son of Redoute’s Choice stallion, Snitzel, is now unbeaten in five from five – although he did famously dead-heat with his stablemate Second Tycoon at his second start at the height of the much publicised national jockey title race. The three year old colt wins his races in a workmanlike fashion rather than with real flash- he certainly is one to stay with.
Despite excuses made on his behalf by Commentator Alastair Cohen, favourite Pierre Jourdan was conclusively beaten into third by the Tyrone Zackey trained Smanjemanje and the gallant The Apache in the R200 000 Gr3 London News Stakes run over 1800m at Turffontein. Cape Apprentice Grant Van Niekerk rode a terrific finish as only inches separated him and a vigorous Raymond Danielson on The Apache in the final stages. The race was a splendid advert for KwaZulu-Natal bred horses, who grabbed the first three positions.
The other Turffontein feature, the R135 000 Listed Sea Cottage Stakes run over 1800m produced an impressive finish by the Gavin Van Zyl trained Slumdogmillionaire. The three year old Strike Smartly colt ran right away from his six rivals to win easing up under Marthinus Mienie. One for the notebook, but why no Raymond Danielson, we wonder?
