Super Sizzling Silvano!

Head To Head! Sean Cormack keeps Silvano’s Jet at it as Hot Ticket (Karl Neisius) bears down on him

Western Cape based trainers dominated the finish to Sunday’ s R350 000 Gr2 Betting World Derby at Clairwood. Joey Ramsden’s Silvano’s Jet held off Dean Kannemeyer’s desperately unlucky Hot Ticket in an exciting finish, with the Mike Bass trained Abercrombie grabbing third place.

It was a terrific  Silvano double feature winning weekend for Ramsden, who also trained the PE Gold Cup winner, Crown Of Gold, on Friday.

Silvano also featured again here by siring the exacta, and the outstanding stallion looks well set to win the SA Champion Sire title with the end of the season in sight.

The field for this year’s Derby was labelled, probably somewhat unfairly, as below par for various reasons of timing and programming. But can horseracing ever keep all the people happy all the time?

The race itself produced an entertaining spectacle and there is little doubt that the top three could still go on to win their fair share of races at the top level.

Off a fairly slow pace ,Cormack led early and then eased his mount off matters in third place and about three lengths away as Sky Rise showed the way from Kalmia.

Hot Ticket was relaxed in midfield early on.

As they had done in the Oaks earlier, the field kept a few horse widths off the running rail.

Sky Rise led for home as Silvano’s Jet came forward smartly, with Neisius looking left and right for galloping room and a gap on Hot Ticket.

Inside the 200m the gap had opened as Hot Ticket charged at Silvano’s Jet, but Cormack had made his move at the right time.

Celebrations! Silvano’s Jet is led in by Mrs Gary Grant and Joey Ramsden

Silvano’s Jet found more all the way home and kept the flying Hot Ticket at bay.

He won by a neck in a time of 154,21 secs. Hawkins course record of 147,30 secs puts that into perspective!

Karl Neisius had Hot Ticket storming home at the business end after the Kannemeyer runner had been boxed in when going for his run  from about the 400m to the 200m marker.

When seeing daylight, he took off and his owners should be feeling justifiably aggrieved that they had no real opportunity to test Silvano’s Jet’s tolerance levels!

Abercrombie improved to run on well for third place.

Winning trainer Joey Ramsden said afterwards that there had been obvious question marks  against Silvano’s Jet staying the trip,  but qualified that doubt by labelling Silvano a ‘great sire.’

“Silvano’s Jet’s  run in the Daily News was a good one. He was caught wide through nobody’s fault. But he still finished commendably and ran a great race in the circumstances. I was actually thinking about nominating him for the Vodacom Durban July. But people would have laughed at me. Are there any more supplementary entries accepted for the July?” he asked wryly and with a broad smile.

Ramsden thanked  owner Nic Sercombe and said that the colt had been bought with plans for a hurdling career overseas.

He said that Silvano’s Jet had shown huge promise early on and had improved since his wind operation. Ramsden also confirmed that Silvano’s Jet was a rig.

A cryptorchid horse, or ‘rig’as  it  is commonly known, has one or both testicles retained in the inguinal canal or abdominal cavity.

Silvano’s Jet’s next target is likely to be the Listed Darley Arabian on July day.

Bred by BD Filby, Silvano’s Jet is by Silvano out of the five time winning Jet Master mare, State Coach.

He has now won 3 races with 6 places from his 13 starts. He took his earnings to R355 385.

Hot Ticket is likely to seek some sweet revenge  in the Darley Arabian.

That should make for an interesting return match!

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