Back to best! Los Colmos and Chris Puller won the main event.
There should be post-mortems aplenty in the tote outlets after the Durbanville meeting on 19 October. A Pick 6 dividend of over R500 000 bore a measure of testimony to a forgettable day for most punters. One must question whether the sport, particularly the National Horseracing Authority, should be doing more to publicise, investigate and explain away some of the topsy turvy results?
When, for instance, the most fancied horse in a powerful stable’s three-way coupling runs way behind the other two, then the Stipes should be screaming an answer for punters from the rooftops. Surely that is simple good customer ethics and not rocket science?
We are not suggesting skulduggery or foul play. But deviations of form and turnabouts need serious looking into. Not flippant words on a verbose report that nobody of relevance or importance even looks at. And while the R512 000 Pick 6 dividend may look great on an advertisement when competing against the lotto, it does little for the diehard punters who have a semblance of understanding of form and come back for more, no matter the weather.
We have heard it before-‘That’s racing. You take the good with the bad.’ One needs to analyse exactly who is preaching this soft philosophy. Is it the people who earn a good and comfortable living out of the game or is the punter? If it is not the latter, then horseracing had better sit up and do something very quickly.
We follow this sport with passion. It is an exciting and colourful game of chance peppered by a measure of calculation. With a very reasonable minimum R2 bet these days, that is what we believe attracts the average Joe, above the lure of the blind wager of the casino. Let’s open the communication channels without further delay.
Good Fellow! Richard Fourie showed his skills with a great double.
Talented young jockey Richard Fourie brought a flicker of light on a dark day with two characteristically strong front-running displays of race-riding. He went start to finish on Comtesse Dubois in the second race over 1000m for Team Valor International. She is no Ebony Flyer, but she can get along and recorded an impressive third win from six starts for Justin Snaith.
Fourie’s next winner rattled the rafters in the aged structures of the well established country course. Starting at 40-1, few would have given a second glance in the fifth race at the sparse form of the troubled genius that is Entrador. The son of Orpen with a serious head issue can run though, and he has obviously benefitted from the calming Noordhoek Dunes therapeutic approach of Mike Stewart. This was his third run for the seaside trainer after a few months at Dean Kannemeyer in Milnerton, and a far cry from the hurly burly of Gauteng where he launched his career in the care of Geoff Woodruff. Formerly campaigned in the red, white and black Jaffee silks, he runs for Mr and Mrs Baragwanath these days and as a lightly raced five year old gelding, he could well win again
Lancelin was the 8-10 favourite in the day’s topliner, an MR90 Handicap over 1400m, and he looked like the proverbial good thing as the form horse amongst a rather tired bunch. He had also run the brilliant Past Master to 0,75 lengths over the course and distance a year ago! The talented but vastly underrated Chris Puller took Los Colmos up to make the pace after the grey Imperial Fox had jumped well despite playing silly buggers in the stalls. And the front is where Los Colmos stayed, resisting the late challenge of his stablemate Kambrook, who had lost valuable ground at the start.The fancied Lancelin popped up briefly on the outside but eventually only beat a ten year old stayer home. A poor effort.
While he rode a vintage race out of the very top drawer on the Kannemeyer –trained Marcada Tormento in the third race, when getting up to snare a determined Glen Hatt on the favourite Full Regalia, Neisius genius touch and luck appeared to desert him on the balance of the day. His record for the trying afternoon included unplaced finishes on three favourites – Springtime Flame(evens), Caravaggio(17-10)and Lancelin(9-10). He was also involved in an untidy scuffle at about the 300m marker when riding the fancied Wise Choice, when appearing to interfere with the Kotzen mare Diva Dancer in the fifth race. He will no doubt bounce back from this sketchy patch.
