Beyond Charles Dickens, she was said to be the best bet of the day and duly arrived in a heartstopping finish.
One of our lovable and colourful equine characters of last term, Sean Tarry’s Equus star Mrs Geriatrix made it six wins from six start when narrowly shading the flashy Mike de Kock grey White Pearl in a grandstand finish to the R400 000 BSA Sales Cup (F&M) at Turffontein on Saturday.
Mrs Geriatrix (Richard Fourie on outside) gets the better of a determined JP van der Merwe and White Pearl (Pic – JC Photos)
With regular pilot Richard Fourie in the irons, Mrs Geriatrix (1-4) carried the hopes of many punters as the only Gr1 winner in the line-up, but hardly had things all her own way in the 1450m race restricted to eligible fairer sex graduates of the 2022 BSA sales.
Looking to cruise past the dour White Pearl (20-1) at the 200m, she faced the first battle of her career and delivered under a deceptively confident Richard Fourie.
After coming right back at her more fancied opponent, White Pearl was beaten a nose in a time of 88,38 secs.
The rest were in another race with third-placed Betula (20-1) 5,50 lengths back.
Cheques were paid all the way down to sixth, with the 66-1 Godspeed paying her way, albeit some 10 lengths back.
Enjoy the replay:
A R200 000 2022 National Yearling Sale graduate, the Clifton-bred Mrs Geriatrix is a daughter of Maine Chance champion Vercingetorix (Silvano) out of the Kahal mare Velvet Glove, whose breeder Peter Blythe once described as ‘not too good’.
She is a ringer for her relatives with a strong likeness to her dam’s star siblings, Prince Of Kahal and Fort Vogue. This is the smart family of Clifton bred Whatalady, and hails back to champions Highland Night, sire Warm White Night, Tristful, Night Watch and Prince Asad.
A winner of 6 from 6, Mrs Geriatrix took her stakes earnings to R1 205 000.
She has bigger fish to fry in the months ahead, and continues the Magical Lady Syndicate’s dream racehorse ownership experience.
