Summerhill Stud produced three good feature winners over the past three days and it was the 4yo Admire Main filly Mamasita, the lesser fancied of the Weiho Marwing duo, who led all the way to win the R120 000 Umsinzi Handicap at Scottsville on Sunday.
Well judged ride by Anthony Delpech sees Mamasita register her first turf win
The 1800m non black-type feature was only able to attract seven runners, with the class Gr1 winner Bilateral carrying topweight under Anton Marcus and touching 9-10 before starting a firm 15-10 favourite.
It was her stablemate Mamasita, on whom Anthony Delpech was quick to take advantage of a tardy gallop, who went up to dictate matters. She was held on a tight rein ahead of Supercede and Bilateral, with only seven lengths covering the field.
In the run for home Delpech moved quickly and grabbed two lengths as his six opponents were caught flat-footed.
Anton Marcus had Bilateral out wide but she simply lacked the toe to sprint with the leaders and she only got going late – falling out of the Place Accumulator, much to the chagrin of punters.
Mamasita won full of running to score by 1,25 lengths in a time of 114,10 secs. This was her first win on turf,
Just back from a feature success in the Cape, Gathering Fame chased her home with Supercede also running a fair race to grab third.
The 4yo Mamasita is a daughter of Admire Main out of the one-time winning Joshua Dancer mare, Espinado.
She has won 4 races with 6 places from 15 starts for stakes of R340 775.
Avontuur-sponsored Anthony Delpech rode three winners on the afternoon but the standout performance came from the Newbury Racing owned Muscatt.
Trained by Michael Roberts, he won the second race, a 1000m Pinnacle Stakes sprint, in a time of 55,8 secs, in the process breaking Captain Of All’s record of 55,96 set up in March 2015.
Muscatt (Calvin Habib) smash the Scottsville 1000m track record
The 6yo gelded son of Victory Moon carried 54,5 kgs, courtesy of apprentice Calvin Habib and beat London Call going away by 3,50 lengths.
Given the references to official ‘good to soft’ going and the commentator’s suggesting the surface was sticky, Muscatt’s performance is made all the more remarkable.
