Trying Hard. Phumelela Marketing Executive Clyde Basel has some ideas to shape the Cape.
Despite the Competition Board’s recent left-hook, Phumelela appear to be making their presence felt in the Cape. Marketing Executive Clyde Basel’s minor coup in securing the services of Andrew Fortune, added much needed lustre to the holiday racing programme on Easter Monday.
Tellytrack presenter Stan Elley and Basel were even arguing over who must take the credit for the improved crowds, the family fun craft market and a happy hour after the last race with live entertainment. The fact that Phumelela recently started flexing muscle is no coincidence at all, and the real test will be with the establishment of these side-shows as regular features.
Having the colourful character Fortune expressing his views in between races added a touch of enjoyment and he was generally spot-on with his educated assessments that included going ‘balls to the wall’ in the final race when tipping Karl Neisius’ 3001st winner Care To Dance. Fortune was spot-on suggesting that jockeyship would make the difference with Dolfie Maeder’s game Air Dancer being narrowly beaten by the better jockey.
The individual Victor Ludorums on Easter Monday were jockey Bernard Fayd’herbe, who rode a feature double in his hat-trick of winners and owner Markus Jooste who has a share in four of the nine winners on the card.
But the day belonged to jockey Karl Neisius, who registered the 3000th winner of his long career when he enjoyed an armchair ride on the 9-10 favourite Cape Royal in the third race, a Maiden Juvenile Plate over 1000m. Lady Laidllaw’s colt looks a promising sprinter and he was never off the bit when striking on his debut.
The Cape's Royal. Karl Neisius on his 3000th visit to the winner's box.
It is appropriate too that Neisius reached his milestone on a horse for trainer Dean Kannemeyer,who has supported him so loyally for many years. Kannemeyer also has an affinity with the progeny of Royal Academy having trained the likes of Group winners, Eyeofthetiger, Express Way, Royal Chalon and Le Drakkar . WPOTA-or is it RA?- Chairman Rodney Dunn was on hand to mark the occasion with a plaque.
The first of the two feature races of the afternoon, the R115 000 Listed Perfect Promise Sprint suffered the ‘Small South Syndrome’- a condition whereby small fields are accompanied by plenty of whinging and little direction. It is perplexing that the Cape trainers are not supporting these fairly well endowed features, and the argument that the better sorts are all in Durban, does not hold any water. That said, we saw a really smart sort in the Mike Bass Trippi two year old Hammie’s Hooker, who cruised in at 13-20.
Bernard Fayd’herbe took the Zandvliet Stud-bred filly to the start slowly and she drew some doubts and an easing in her price as she does not exactly float down! The result was never in doubt though as she recorded her third career win from her four starts.
The only real disappointment of the race was the much vaunted Marshall filly Countess Of Rhynie, who ran stone last of the five runners.
Marshall won the juvenile feature double at Clairwood on Sunday, and he bounced back quickly in the R115 000 Listed Somerset 1200 to grab the winning exacta.
The victorious Jooste silks were carried by three of the six runners here and it was the Klawervlei Western Winter colt The West Is Wide who benefitted from a top-class ride by Fayd’herbe. He sat patiently from last into the final 300m, and was switched to the outside rail and kept balanced to win going away from stablemate Half Moon Hotel and the pacesetting Pole Star.
Wild West! Bernard Fayd'herbe steers The West Is Wide to an impressive win.
Joey Ramsden’s strongly fancied favourite Parado ran an inexplicable shocker and finished last. He was slightly cramped for galloping room when finding his stride and the run is probably best ignored as he will probably need a mile to show his best.
The West Is Wide is out of the brilliantly fast Fard mare Poppy and he has now won two of four starts. He ran a very nice fifth on debut just 2,55 lengths off his stable companion Twitter – and we saw what that one did at Clairwood in the Godolphin Barb.
Just as his colleague Vaughan Marshall can train juvenile winners, Joey Ramsden has few peers when it comes to training staying race winners. He sent out a four-way coupling to contest the fifth race, an MR80 Handicap over 2500m, and his runners filled the first and third places – albeit probably the wrong way around for punters.
Richard Fourie rode a tremendously well-judged race from start to finish here on the Caesour gelding A Boy Named Sue. Probably seen by his fellow riders as a pacemaker for the favourite Sylviidae, they let Fourie stride freely and when they woke up he had five lengths too much in hand at the 250m marker.
The grossly unfair principle of leisurely loading badly behaved horses at the expense of the good kids in the class, was illustrated in the second race where debutante Rosita Tibbs was granted what felt like an inordinate amount of time to play silly buggers. The connections of the twelve other unraced two year old fillies in the Maiden Juvenile Plate must have been pulling their hair out. Why punish the good to accommodate the bad?
But once they jumped, the result was never in doubt and Bernard Fayd’herbe rode the first of his three winners on the day, and also the first leg of a double for the Jooste, Shirtliff and Ressell partnership. He steered the Lake Coniston ‘cheapie’ (she only cost R25 000) Intimateconnection to an easy win ahead of Our Way and the eyecatching first-timer Tempestuous.
Pace, or the lack of it, is often an issue in the Cape, but there were plenty of takers in the seventh race, an MR96 Handicap run over a mile. The fancied Hammie’s Boy and the rejuvenated Mike Stewart – trained gelding Entrador predictably led the show with the pacy Spy Glass in close attendance.
In From The Cold. Spy Glass skips clear under Grant Van Niekerk to win a smart race.
As suggested by the shrewd Andrew Fortune in the Tellytrack preview of the race, Hammie’s Boy welter impost of 62kgs would count here and it certainly did as he faded right out as Grant Van Niekerk shot Spy Glass into the lead. The lightly weighted former De Kock horse stayed on well to give Bruce Ferreira his second Kotzen winner of the week after Erfaan had won at Durbanville on Wednesday.
Spy Glass is a four-time winning Fort Wood gelding who spent a short stint with Grant Paddock in Port Elizabeth. He obviously has soundness issues but he was cleverly placed here by Glen Kotzen and Ferreira could have lots of fun with him in the winter months.
