United We Stand! The Kotzen flyer comes home lonely.
Some sage advice for long-suffering owners from KwaZulu-Natal based owner Rob McGregor. If nothing else works, try a grey horse. It appeared to do the trick for the Durban Bookmaker and his partners at the relocated Greyville meeting on Sunday 18 December, when the pretty, almost white, National Emblem filly United slammed her field in the Maiden Plate over 1000m.
Anton Marcus didn’t pitch up for the ride, but Billy Jacobson grabbed the bone thrown to him by Glen Kotzen’s Summerveld-based Assistant Trainer Frikkie Greyling with both hands. Jumping from what had started life as a great draw of 12 at Clairwood, the weather enforced and track surface problem switch to Greyville meant that the Avondale Road parking attendants would have assisted Jacobson into the starting gate. But all’s well that ends well, and the plan came together in storybook fashion with the grey finishing on the outside running rail to win going away. It doesn’t hurt either to have lucky Raymond and Paula Deacon as co-owners either!
When science and logic fails, us racing folk often resort to superstition and myth to deliver the answers we are looking for in the puzzling sport of kings. Depending on whether your own horse is in front or behind them, grey horses can be considered lucky or unlucky. In Wales, white horses are believed to be an omen of death. If a bride sees a white horse on the way to the church, she will have a long happy marriage. What is that, you are probably wondering? But also not surprisingly, most women love grey horses. But back to the racing.
Day of the grey. United is led in by Frikkie Greyling, Rob McGregor and Lois Deacon.
Besides McGregor’s tongue-in-cheek reference to the Keivan Stud bred’s coat colour, her victory is a credit and tribute to perserverance and patience on the part of the Kotzen team and her connections. Having made her debut way back in the Cape Winter in April at Kenilworth, her first four starts showed her to be no real great shakes. Switched from Kenilworth to Durbanville, from sprints to a mile, she showed little. But the switch to the lush and kinder climes of the once last outpost of the British Empire, was the career booster that she somehow longed for. She has banked a cheque at all her three starts here, and based on the win today, she may just pay to follow over the minimum cut.
Colin Scott’s handsome Dynasty gelding, Sage Throne, has never been quite the same horse since his unlucky loss to Joey Ramsden’s Il Saggiatore of the Derby trophy in the boardroom at Clairwood in June this year. Public opinion was well divided by the decision of the Stipes that day and his subsequent three runs have delivered nothing. But he put all that behind him in impressive fashion when recording his first win as a four year old in the 2400m Pinnacle Stakes.
He was allowed to lope along in midfield by Muzi Yeni as Raymond Danielson took the Mogok gelding Run Amok to the front in an effort to steal a march on his rivals. The grey Bolshevik moved up menacingly as the field turned for home and Marghoob dropped out to a walk at the rear. But Yeni was on top of things as Sage Throne glided through to win going away from the grey, with the slow starting Secret Symbol running his usual game and honest race to pick up R9025 in third place.
With Run Amok staying on for fourth, it was a forgettable race for trainer Paul Lafferty, whose three runners ran amongst the rats and mice at the rear. Lafferty in fact had worse to come in the very next race when the seemingly heartless Legal Account ran unplaced as a favourite under Anton Marcus in the MR86 Handicap over 1400m. Muzi Yeni rode another powerful finish when he got Rocky Bay up to head a flying Jet Legend. In her defence, Legal Account encountered interference late, but she now owes punters big money and she looks like she will retire a one-time winner.
Anthony Delpech finally got amongst the winners when he rode a powerful finish to get the lovely Strike Smartly filly Cherry On The Cake home in the MR90 Handicap over 1600m. Cane Martini made the pace here as the long-striding Gavin Van Zyl –trained filly was tucked up for a run down the outside. With 300m to run, she stayed on best –she doesn’t really quicken much – to beat the consistent Penthouse with Secret Babe catching the eye after a rest, when dashing through for third.This was an overdue win for the Oppenheimer four year old, and she could well follow up, while Gavin Van Zyl will welcome the change of fortune after a low-key recent run, which included a heavy fine by the NHRA for a prohibited substance.
Tormenter! Macarda Tormenta wins the seventh easing up.
Dean Kannemeyer will be looking to put the disappointment of the Guineas on Saturday well behind him and one consolation as he now regroups is that his KZN satellite yard is firing on all cylinders. His Clairwood Assistant Albie Going sent out Mainspring on Friday evening at this venue for a nice win and Macarda Tormenta followed up on her Maiden win with a smooth victory here – like Mainspring, under Raymond Danielson. The Maktoum Thunder Gulch filly started at generous odds of 16-1 in this mile event and this was no doubt due to her short lay-off and her wide draw. She was well back early but came through the middle late in the race to nab the well supported Artistically Done, to win well.
With the shadows lengthening, champion jockey Anton Marcus injected a measure of respectability into an otherwise ordinary day, when he steered the Kom Naidoo-trained Top Talent to a smooth win in the Maiden Plate over 1600m. The daughter of Kahal has been running up closely and despite her poor draw won readily at her fifth start.
