Vihaan’s Bomb is turning into an exciting staying prospect as Gareth van Zyl’s gelding reeled off another victory in a Middle Stakes race over 2400m at Hollywoodbets Scottsville on Wednesday.
After shedding his maiden by an impressive five lengths, the son of Lancaster Bomber has not looked back and if anything, yesterday’s win was his most impressive to date.
Vihaan’s Bomb (Richard Fourie) is wide out in the white cap with blue stars in this shot after they had covered 200m of the race (Pic – Candiese Lenferna)
Andrew Harrison writes that this was his fourth straight success in as many starts since being sent over ground and denying the handicapper at every turn. Ridden in all four by Richard Fourie, the rider pointed out post-race that Vihaan’s Bomb had picked up an eight-point increase in the handicap for beating Continental Express by a half-length in their last meeting with the latter escaping a penalty.
Given this result, the handicappers were proved right as Vihaan’s Bomb accelerated away over the final furlong to shake off a courageous effort from Last Man Standing with Continental Express a well beaten third.
Fourie had his mount handy from the jump as African Dusk and then Rock Fall made the running but in the straight Vihaan’s Bomb kept finding in spite of a stern challenge from Last Man Standing and eventually ‘broke’ his rival to win going away.
Van Zyl will be holding his breath when the latest handicap ratings are published.
That said, it was a fine day for Van Zyl as Vihaan’s Bomb rounded off a stable treble, the only blemish being the defeat of hot favourite Pritti Victory in the MR 90 Handicap as War Empress kept rolling under Muzi Yeni.
Louis Goosen explained that Yeni had begged for the ride as soon as the weights were published and his judgement proved to be on the mark as the daughter of Vercingetorix kept finding to hold off the favourite who gave away 6kg to the winner.
Van Zyl and Fourie teamed up in the card opener as Henry Harvey made a winning debut for Reon Barnard, Dave MacLean and Gary Player. Favourite My Boy Lollipop had to be content with another second placing but gave the winner plenty of cheek and Frank Robinson’s charge must surely have a change of fortune soon. Mark Dixon was disappointed with the showing of Master Du Rouvray but the colt appeared to lose his action under pressure under Serino Moodley.
There was redemption for Moodley and Dixon in the next as Silver Savage kept the Dean Kannemeyer first timer Maphaka at bay in a tight finish with French Duchess making late headway for the shallow end of the purse.
By the time MJ Odendaal was on hand to meet Tobacconist in the winner’s circle, his ‘bib’ had turned into a ‘tie’ but it nearly wasn’t to be as Calvin Habib managed to extricate the son of Flower Alley out of a cul-de-sac to get up on the line ahead of a wall of horses.
“I had a beautiful run and there was a nice gap that I was going for. It was a nice pace and the pacesetters were falling back. I had to take drastic measures and get out of there. When I switched him in there was a lot to make up. Full credit to him (Tobacconist), he gave me a second kick and I was surprised that he won because to ask them for their run and break their stride, and then ask them again, not many horses will do that for you.”
With five Hollywoodbets Kenilworth meetings washed out, including this Saturday’s scheduled meeting, Fourie has been hamstrung a little in his quest for a remarkable 400 winners in a season, but between KZN and Fairview he is still making good headway with his three winners taking him to 372.
In the race for the KZN trainer’s championship, Van Zyl (51) pulled back three on log leader Alyson Wright (53) with just two winners separating them, with two weeks of the season left to run.
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