Middle Stump! Yorker (Robbie Fradd) charges clear to win at the Vaal today
We may just have seen something quite special at the Vaal this afternoon. Geoff Woodruff’s obviously smart Jet Master colt Yorker scored a scintillating victory to close the jackpot and he looks like a Gr1 performer in the making, if ever we have seen one.
A dead ringer for his brilliant recently deceased sire, Yorker is a 17 hands giant of a 3yo colt.
Having only his fourth start, he registered his second win in style when drawing clear to win the MR 82 Handicap over 1700m by six lengths in a time of 100,29 secs.
Produced from second last into the straight, Yorker was switched out for a run by Robbie Fradd at the 400m marker and his gigantic elastic stride carried him into the lead in a matter of strides.
He races in the bright yellow Bernard Kantor silks, and Markus and Ingrid Jooste, together with Jim Lewis are the other fortunate partners.
Both Robbie Fradd and Geoff Woodruff battled to restrain their obvious excitement in the postrace interview, and Fradd said it was ‘race over at the 650m marker.’
Rahul. Yorker’s half brother by Black Minnaloushe is Lot 528 on the NYS in a fortnight from now
Bought for R1,8 million on the Cape Premier Yearling Book 1 last year, the son of Jet Master was bred by Varsfontein’s Carl and Amanda De Vos, and is out of the four time winning Al Mufti mare Little Indian.
De Vos said that Yorker had always been a big fellow, and that he would just need time to grow into himself and mature. “This is a game of patience. Geoff knows exactly how to get them to win Gr1’s.”
Little Indian won from a mile to 1700m, and was trained by Geoff Woodruff for most of her career, before transferring to Harold Crawford in her later years.
Carl bought Little Indian from his farrier a few years ago. “It was quite fortuitous, but some of the best stories in racing usually are. My son was on an exchange programme in India at the time, and after Amanda heard that the dam was Little Indian, she said it was meant to be,” he laughed.
“We battled initially with her, but she has produced some lovely foals in the interim. Mike De Kock trained The Raj who was by Tiger Ridge and a very talented horse. I went back to the Storm Cat line with the colt by Black Minnaloushe that we are offering on the National Yearling Sale at the end of this month. He is just a magnificent specimen,” he said.
The De Vos’ often use cricket related names as the family is ‘cricket crazy’. Familiar names include the well performed Caughtintheslips.
Little Indian’s next foal is with Brett Crawford. He is a 2yo named Hashim (by Trippi) and Carl says he has heard good things about him.
Make a note of Varsfontein’s Lot 528 on the NYS in two weeks. His name is Rahul.
