Having his first ride in the Cape since September 2020, Mauritius returnee Corne Orffer celebrated a dream comeback for his old boss when the Futura filly Pink Tourmaline proved too strong as she registered a maiden stakes success to win the R150 000 Ardmore Listed Jamaica Handicap at Kenilworth on Friday.
Orffer rode for Brett Crawford with great success for seven years before deciding to spread his wings on the Indian Ocean Island of Mauritius, and he couldn’t have hoped for a better ‘I’m back’ advertisement as he rode a cracker to keep Pink Tourmaline (20-1) going to withstand a late challenge from the marginally unlucky favourite Black Silver (3-1) by 0,75 lengths in a time of 124,27 secs.
Corne Orffer is clearly delighted with his smashing return to hometown action (Pic – Chase Liebenberg)
Glen Kotzen’s Jasmine (8-1) – another daughter of Futura – was 1,25 lengths further back in third, with Do Angels Cry (10-1) rounding off a nice quartet.
Bred and raced by Drakenstein Stud, Pink Tourmaline gave the Rupert operation their eighth stakes winner of the season and the second of their two winners on their festival day, where the honours were fairly evenly spread.
Pink Tourmaline’s meritorious victory from a 13 draw was a sentimental one, beyond the Crawford-Orffer ‘reunion’. Her sire, Futura, was also trained by Brett Crawford and won the L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate in 2015.
Pink Tourmaline produced a gutsy showing to win well (Pic – Chase Liebenberg)
Out of the Trippi one-time winning mare Sapphire Gem, Pink Tourmaline, who is bred on the same Futura/Trippi cross as stakes winners Sweet Future and Vihaan’s Pie, is the seventh stakes winner to have emerged from Futura’s first crop.
Pink Tourmaline has won 5 races (unbeaten over the 2000m!) with 3 places from 14 starts for stakes of R264 650.
Futura’s stakes winners to runners stats of 8,5% place the son of Dynasty in the top league.
South Africa’s Horse Of The Year in 2014-2015, Futura has three lots on the Cape Premier Yearling Sale, and two lots on the Cape Yearling Sale next month.
OFFICIAL RESULT
| TRAINER | JOCKEY | DISTANCE | BETTING | |||
| 1ST | 2 PINK TOURMALINE | B Crawford | C Orffer | 20/1 | ||
| 2ND | 10 BLACK SILVER | SJ Snaith | G van Niekerk | 0.75 | 0.75 | 33/10 |
| 3RD | 7 JASMINE | GS Kotzen | M Winnaar | 1.25 | 2.00 | 8/1 |
| 4TH | 9 DO ANGELS CRY | C Bass-Robinson | G Cheyne | 0.20 | 2.20 | 10/1 |
| 5TH | 4 SO FLAWLESS | WA Nel | R Fourie | 0.50 | 2.70 | 11/2 |
| TIME OF RACE: 2 mins 04.27 sec | ||||||
| Tote
Fav |
10 BLACK SILVER | SJ Snaith | G van Niekerk | 0.75 | 33/10 | |
