Precursor streaks clear to win well (JC Photos)
Rumoured to be unbeatable on the day, the Captain Al colt Precursor led all the way to win the R125 000 Sophomore 1000 with ease at the Vaal on Saturday. The Klawervlei bred CTS Cape Premier Yearling Sale graduate looks a top sand sprinter in the making.
Jockey Anton Marcus is riding a crest of the wave at the moment and he would have still been on the high of his five winners from six rides at Greyville on Friday evening when he kept Precursor honest all the way to the line to beat the rested Fire Horse by xxx lengths in a time of xxx
Tiger’s Legacy reared badly in the loading provcess and he and his stablemate Green Rock were both withdrawn in a double blow for the Wallace Tolmay yard.
The field jumped on terms and Precursor was quickly up to lead Fire Horse, Belong To Me and Ispha.
Into the final 400m it was obvious that nothing was making any impression on the leader and despite Fire Horse staying on doggedly for second, Marcus has things wrapped up at the 200m marker.
Precursor, who went off at 15 to 10, won by 1,25 lengths in a time of 58,06 secs.
One of the disappointments here was the Tiger Ridge gelding Isphan, who looked a million dollars in the preliminaries, but was never going well and plodded into fourth.
Barend Botes’ Captain Ellio also had his supporters after a striking maiden win, but suffered a bilateral epistaxis and was suspended for 180 days.
Precursor was recording his fourth win from 6 starts with one place cheque into the bargain and took his earnings to R262 375.
He was a R400 000 Cape Premier Yearling Sale Book 1 buy and is by the magnificently consistent Captain Al out of the seven-time winning London News mare, Oracle News. The latter was trained by Paul Lafferty during her racing career.
