With Oratorio’s former Hong Kong Horse Of The Year Military Attack winning his 13th race in a Gr2 on Saturday, and his first SA yearlings to be offered at the Cape Premier Yearling Sale in January, it has been an exciting few weeks for the Avontuur team
An eight-race programme with an average of just over nine runners per race, and where more than one trainer observed that they had been requested to leave horses in, or risk losing races, does not bode well – when we are already nicely into summer.
I’ll have two weeks of complete rest – just walking and no running – and then I can start training again during the last week.
Justin Snaith’s newsmaking big gun Futura gave us a glimpse of his streetwise fighting side at Greyville on Saturday when he dug deep to peg back a determined Ice Machine and score an exciting last gasp win in the R1 million Gr1 Champions Cup
Fayd’herbe will ride exclusively for Snaith but he is contracted to Ridgemont Stud and will be obligated to ride their horses first.
With the field reduced to seven, Milnerton-based Joey Ramsden wasn’t complaining as he grabbed the exacta to make it a hat-trick of wins for the Cape visitors
Superior fitness, a touch of genuine class and a top drawer ride by Bernard Fayd’herbe saw the Joey Ramsden-trained Liquid Mercury lift the honours in a hard fought Winter Derby at Kenilworth on Saturday
A triple Gr1 runner-up in her career so far, Hammie’s Hooker has just been one of those horses loaded with talent, but born in the wrong year
The Sunday stakes feature was a memorable one for leading Cape stud, Maine Chance, whose black and yellow silks were worn by the first two home. They also bred the runner-up, a smart daughter of Lateral, while the winner was bred by another Cape breeder in Digteby Stud
The impressive Wylie Hall had recently returned to racing after an eight month break from action. He won the Gr2 Colorado King Stakes and he proved that to be no fresh fluke when taking the next step on Saturday towards a possible July rematch with Legislate
“We are back.” The brief but emotionally charged statement after Wylie Hall’s smooth victory in the R400 000 Gr2 Colorado King Stakes could hold ominous overtones for the Legislate team
Beyond the pending investigations, things ended well enough for the Bass-Robinson yard when the improving Rainbow Lorikeet stamped her Paddock Stakes prospects with a gutsy victory under a top-notch ride by Aldo Domeyer
