All smiles. Tarry and Van Niekerk-a power team.
A dual Group race winner annihilates a Graduation field. Hardly the stuff to get excited about but the background to Gold Onyx’s dramatic return to his best at Greyville on 11 October speaks of unbelievable patience on the part of his connections.
Sean Tarry’s leading owner Chris Van Niekerk has shown the patience of Job with this enigmatic Black Minnaloushe gelding and few owners would have had the emotional or financial tolerance levels to soldier on with a horse that has been plain disappointing and called everything from a brass to a thief, to just plain overrated.
But horses don’t fluke Group race wins and now that Team Tarry appear to have sorted out his mechanical problems he looks like he could well train on into something above average. Robbie Fradd was blushing as he strolled across the line in the Graduation Plate over 1900m – such was the embarrassing ease of his win. The veteran – or 46 year old jockey, as Paul Lafferty likes to remind us – allowed Keagan De Melo to make the pace on Lord Hawke before moving clear from his hapless opponents with 300m to go.
Gold Medal. Robbie Fradd gears down and Gold Onyx strolls in.
Gold Onyx has the unique distinction of winning a Graded race on debut. That was the Gr3 Protea Stakes at Turffontein in March 2010. Three unplaced runs followed before he stepped out at Greyville on July day last year and won the R500 000 Gr1 Premier’s Champion Stakes over 1600m at 33-1, beating a lost cause in the De Kock-trained Kavanagh.
Since that thrilling Vodacom Durban July day victory he has earned one minor place stake cheque in ten starts and also had the dubious distinction of being eliminated from the 2011 Vodacom Durban July. He admittedly ran a great race in the Daily News when fifth and just 1,45 lengths off The Apache in a blanket finish.
Trainer Sean Tarry was quick to give credit to the vast experience of his stable jockey Robbie Fradd, whom he confirmed had picked up ‘something behind’ at his last start. He was also asked to explain the improvement to the Stipes. Tarry quipped that training horses was all about making the right decisions and said he needed to ‘sit down and do some homework on the option of going to PE and then to the Cape – or up to Gauteng with the gelding.’ The manner of his win last night suggests that owner Chris Van Niekerk will reap handsome rewards yet for his patience.
Two Good! An ectstatic Keagan De Melo after his win on Aurum.
Apprentice Keagan De Melo was the stand-out jockey on the night with a smoothly taken double. He rode a well-judged race for Pat Lunn on the promising Mogok gelding Storm Bringer in the MR78 Handicap over 1200m and then won the very next race for Des Egdes on Aurum. Just about the second best daughter of Modus Vivendi – after Dancewiththedevil, that is – she was backed al long odds to win her third race from sixteen starts and account for the highly-rated(not another one?) Tarry filly Nikki T, who had every chance. De Melo only claims 2,5kgs these days but is great value for that discount and has nine winners to his credit so far this season.
The rising star on the South African stallion horizon Dynasty continues to produce winners with regularity and he sired the winners of the seventh and eighth races this evening. The first leg of his double was won by the obviously smart gelding Fourth Estate who mowed his opposition down in the MR86 Handicap over 1600m. Given a cucumber cool ride from off the pace by Muzi Yeni as Senor Grise cut out suicide fractions up front, he was set alight at the 300m marker and had to be switched out quite dramatically before forging ahead. The Colin Scott four year old has won three of sixteen outings and looks to have plenty in the tank. A feature of the post-race proceedings here was the bright yellow Rawson Properties blanket that shrouded the winner and received some highly efficient advertising air-time for his enterprising connections, for what felt like an eternity.
All Heart! Dynasty's Roxie Heart glides home under Alec Forbes.
The former PE based mare Roxie Heart was Dynasty’s next winner, and she has hardly put a foot wrong since arriving here. Returning from a two month break, Dennis Drier’s charge made short work of her fourteen rivals in the MR86 Handicap(Fillies&Mares) over 1400m to win going away after scything through the middle. The Ivan Moore mare Day Dreamer had made the pace in what looked a tough punting race, and the swingers paid a small fortune as longshots Chablis and Dadewethu sneaked into the places. The latter was the subject of a particularly smart ride by Jessica Goslett, as she was slow away and made up eyecatching ground late. Goslett was a prodigious talent as an apprentice but has few rides these days and has largely disappeared from view in a male dominated sport.
Jockey Anthony Delpech had a blank evening and cried off with a tension headache after his ride on Royal Rocker in the sixth race, and his mount Bay Route in the seventh had been scratched. He was replaced by Corne Orffer in the final race on Ras Malai. This is the second Kom Naidoo horse that Delpech has effectively gotten off in two meetings after Jarred Samuel replaced him on Victorious King in the fifth race at Clairwood on Sunday. Nothing sinister about that in essence, but exotic punters do put horses in their calculations when the top jockey is down to ride them. And Sunday’s Stipes Report offered no explanation for the Victorious King switch which was declared at 08h48 in the morning. The issue here is that while it may be permissible in terms of the rules, it takes hours to disseminate this onto Tabgold – and the totes have no facility to advise punters. With all due respect to the replacement riders, punters take the brunt of this flaw in the system. The entire process needs investigation and streamlining.
