Thrilling three winners in the mud. Karis Teetan at the top of his game.
Cape racing in winter is a little like the Monaco Royal Wedding. One can’t be quite sure that it is actually going to happen. And when the heavens opened early on Wednesday 29 June, punters were looking for alternative betting options at destinations like Worcester and Catterick . Not a happy thought for us loyal locals.
A lot of us curse the overseas racing as it infringes on the luxury of a cinemascope view of the local racing. We don’t see the parade or the canter downs and we are rather thrown dead with endless betting and suggested perms from all corners of the globe. But amazingly for the second time in three weeks, the Cape lads pulled together and made things happen and we didn’t have to resort to those roulette wheel Northern Hemisphere exotics. But after the sun set on Durbanville, we may as well have been playing Russian roulette as the dead soldiers danced in the early evening winter breeze at the country course. And the fact that the jockeys agreed to ride in spite of a dangerous wet patch at the 1000m marker deserves a special mention. We finally all seem to be on the same page. Very good news that!
The white confetti of losing tickets is a sure sign of big dividends and the Pick Six payout of R352 000 bore testimony to this as the opportunistic Robert Kathi drove the Andries Steyn-trained Jet Master filly Last Flight to a pillar to post win in the last. Nobody was flying. Frankly most were walking home without their shirts. But nobody was happier that racing went on than the man who recently come of age and excitingly had his family out from Mauritius to support him for the past few weeks. Karis Teetan has come a long way since arriving at the SA Jockey Academy as a bewildered greenhorn in a foreign land some four years ago and he put the lid on a very rewarding day at the office with a tittilating treble.
These poetic adjectives don’t make it easier. Let’s say it straight. An awful day. The rain would have saved us had it made the effort. Punters started on the back foot with trainer Paul Reeves bowling us an awkward ball. The Goldmark gelding Outswinger won at his 21st outing and he couldn’t have found a weaker field. He will battle in the Cape beyond this maiden level but well done to his trainer and connections for perservering with him.
The cheapie Windrush filly Gusting was the most impressive winner of the day when she ran away from her field to win the second race, a Maiden Juvenile Plate for fillies over 1600m. Justin Snaith trained her for Etienne Braun and Bill Nelson. Unless she goes straight into open company there is no winners race for the youngsters for the next month or so on the Cape programme. Not great planning.
Karis Teetan rode the first of his three winners when the beautifully bred Lucky Jade stayed on well from her 12 draw for wet weather specialist Mike Stewart to win the Maiden 1300m. The Noordhoek trainer admitted afterwards that part owner Georgina Jaffee’s patience had been wearing thin. But he rides the Jallad filly himself and said she gave him ‘a good feel.’
Sleep therapy. Great double for Aldo Domeyer.
Stan Elley trained a welcome winner from his Phillipi base when Teetan was seen to good effect when driving the Silvano filly Boniface through a gap to win the MR76 Handicap over 1600m. She beat the Kotzen trained Danzero filly Comic Beauty who is getting stronger with racing. Both the sixth and seventh race winners were ridden from the front in the sticky conditions. Morne Winnaar somehow kept the one-paced Stirling Range going to hold off a sustained effort from the Drakenstein Stud owned Luno and then Aldo Domeyer rode his colleagues to sleep on Judged Excellent in the MR 97 Handicap. Take this form with a pinch of salt!
Karis Teetan rounded off his treble when he steered the good looking Brett Crawford gelding Polar Bound through to beat the day’s supposed best bet, Jet Into The Wind, who had no chance with the winner. This MR78 Handicap over 1400m looked awkward beyond the fancied Bass horse, but Polar Bound carried his welter impost of 62kg with aplomb and looks a nice sort in the making. The Kannemeyer trained Chippendale and Mr Vindaloo clipped heels and took a tumble but both jockeys and horses thankfully stood up afterwards
