Progressive sprinter Holkham Bay gave South African jockey Rachel Venniker a dream start to the international jockey competition day with a blistering success in the Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup Dash at Ascot on Saturday.
The William Knight-trained winner, a 4-1 favourite, posted a career-best when scoring at York last time, showed he is a four-year-old on the up with a two-and-a-half-length verdict under South Africa’s only professional female jockey.
A delighted Rachel returns, draped in the South African flag (Pic – Megan Coggin)
Runner-up Kylian (12/1) led home a bunch finish for the places, providing fellow debutant Billy Loughnane with his first Shergar Cup points, with GB & Ireland teammate Tadhg O’Shea in third on Dream Composer.
Venniker said: “The horse did it all. Everything worked out perfectly. I am very thankful for the opportunity. As soon as I asked him the question, he changed legs and I thought they’ll never catch me now.
“I couldn’t have asked for a better start and the horse made it nice and easy for me. It was almost hard to pull him up, he won so well! A great start. This is a beautiful track to ride on, and to ride the first winner is more than I could have hoped for.
“I am so proud I’ve won a race here. What a remarkable feeling. So fantastic to have everyone here I know and spring up a winner; I’m over the moon. It is nice to make South Africa proud and the boss [Michael Roberts] proud.”
Knight said: “Fair play to Holkham Bay. With these sprinters, it sometimes takes a bit of time for it all to click together and Kayley, my head girl, who rides him at home every day, does a good job on him. He is not the most straightforward sometimes.
“Rachel gave him a lovely ride. It just worked out perfectly that that horse came on the outside and she was just able to get a tow off it, which brought himself into the race nicely. He was impressive there over the five furlongs. I think he’s got to be that sort of Wokingham, Stewards’ Cup type horse. He’ll go with a little cut in the ground now. He’s had a little break from his last race, so I hope we’ll have some nice options in the second half of the season.
“The owner keeps telling me we should go for the Portland next – he’s been telling me that for three months – and it might be a good option for him. I think he likes those flat tracks.”
Billy Loughnane, who rode runner-up Kylian, said: “I’ve grown up watching the Shergar Cup and it’s nice to be part of it. Hopefully we can keep running well and get a few points. Kylian ran a cracker, and the gelding has helped him. He just threw it away a little bit in the gates, the winner was well in – we were never beating that – but he did well to finish second.”
