The fairer sex dominated what in effect was a Betway Summer Cup trial race at a hot Turffontein on Saturday with Rafeef daughters Beating Wings and Frances Ethel filling the top two places in the R175 000 Pinnacle Stakes run over the 1600m inside course.
Africa’s richest race, the R6 million Betway Gr1 Summer Cup attracted 42 first entries this past week, with 9 of them lining up in Pinnacle on Saturday.
Rafeef 1-2! Diego de Gouveia drives Beating Wings to victory as Frances Ethel (Kabelo Matsunyane) chases hard (Pic – JC Photos)
Winner of the TAB Gr2 Igugu Stakes last season, Stuart Pettigrew saddled Ridgemont Highlands-bred Beating Wings to her first start as a 4yo and Diego de Gouveia did the rest – keeping her in touch with the pacesetting River Romeo before taking charge halfway down the straight.
Enjoying a nice weight advantage, Beating Wings (8-1) went on strongly beat the fast-finishing Frances Ethel (6-1) by three quarters of a length in a time of 98,56 secs.
It was a great day for Ridgemont’s super sire Rafeef (Redoute’s Choice), who sired the exacta here and had 3 winners on the afternoon as we went to publication.
Frances Ethel is bound to shorten in the big-race antepost markets with this effort under the belt, and the news earlier on Saturday that British star Oisin Murphy will make the long trip to ride her.
Calvin Habib guided Atticus Finch (7-2) into third a further 1,25 lengths away, with Silver Sanctuary (4-1) completing the quartet, thus completing 3 of the top 4 places for fillies.
Of the balance of the Summer Cup entries, there will be more work to be done, although all were making their season debut, bar Puerto Manzano.
The balance were Safe Passage (2,80 lengths), Puerto Manzano (7,50 lengths), Litigation(10,50 lengths), Future Pearl (13,50 lengths) and Winchester Mansions (19 lengths), the last mentioned never getting into the race.
Raced by all of Messrs Dayalan Chinsammy, S Govender, L Grammer, Reashan S D Maharaj, Andre’ Mey & Miss Trinisha Pillay, the victorious Beating Wings was originally a R325 000 Cape Premier Yearling Sale purchase.
Bred by Ridgemont, she is a daughter of Rafeef (Redoute’s Choice) out of the three-time winning Western Winter mare, Cool River.
Now a winner of 5 races with 3 places from 10 starts, Beating Wings has earned R757 938.
The Betway Summer Cup can host a maximum field of 20 and is a compressed handicap, with a spread from topweight of 60kgs to a minimum impost of 54kgs.
The winner will bank a gross R3 450 000, with stakes paid down to tenth (R60 000) place.
Second entries close at 11h00 on Tuesday 5 November, with final entries due by 09h00 on Monday 18 November – on which date the weights will be published.
Declarations are due by 11h00 on Wednesday 20 November. The final field will be embargoed and announced later the same day. The determination of the final field is at the discretion of the NHA in consultation with 4Racing.
4Racing, in consultation with the NHA Handicappers, will publish a series of logs from Tuesday 15 October.
