Despite three days of winter sunshine in advance of Saturday’s Hollywoodbets Durbanville racemeeting, Mother Nature again had the last say with the final three races on the card being abandoned after a jockey protest over deteriorating track conditions.
Cape stakeholders and punters will be pleased to have at least managed 70% of what turned out to be a competitive day of racing, with owners Gary Player and Dave Maclean celebrating three winners on the card.
Aldo Domeyer unleashes Otto Luyken down the centre as the obscured Blue Bay and Salvator Mundi (Grant van Niekerk) add to the mix (Pic – Candiese Lenferna)
It’s in fact been a momentous few days for Gary Player, after Dave The King, a star which he races with Larry Nestadt and Lindsay Ralphs, was crowned SA Horse Of The Year on Thursday evening.
But back to Saturday and here things started well for Cape and national champion Justin Snaith when the Cheveley Stud bred Elizabeth Grace romped to victory under Grant van Niekerk at her third start in a partnership of Nancy Hossack and Vaughan Koster.
Snaith saddled the winner in a race where the yard ran 1-2, with more fancied stablemate Champagne Kisses improving smartly to run into second.
The 8-10 favourite From A Distance was missing in action.
There were expectations ahead of the meeting that the Philippi trainers at Futura Park may hold an edge over their Milnerton rivals, given the conditions of the tracks. In the end, it landed up 3 each, with Glen Kotzen saddling a winner out of his Woodhill Training Centre in Paarl.
“The heavens opened at Philippi this morning. Our tracks are the same as Milnerton. You close your eyes some mornings and you hope that the jockeys turn up to ride work,” said trainer Justin Snaith.
The time for the first was shown as 54,45 secs for the 1000m, but it was a manual start and that will be changed to ‘no time taken’ according to the National Racing Bureau.
One World’s Hemel ‘n Aarde bred son Captain West confirmed the quality of his first two starts when he led all the way under Kabelo Matsunyane to win the second race for Brett Crawford.
Matsunyane celebrated the first of his 100 winner target for the season
A R300 000 Cape Premier Yearling Sale graduate, the winner is a first foal of the four-time winning Philanthropist mare, Weston.
Glen Kotzen’s long striding On My Honour caught the eye, when running quite green on his debut for second.
The 18-10 favourite King’s Quest failed to build on his course and distance debut of last month, and ran a tame third.
After two of their favourites ran off the board, the Aldo Domeyer & Candice Bass Robinson team found their right stride in the third, a 1400m Maiden Plate, when they pulled one back for the Milnerton Training Centre courtesy of the La Berg Stud-bred 4yo Plus Four who shed his maiden at his fifth start.
An R800 000 Cape Yearling Sale purchase, Plus Four, who races for Gary Player and Dave MacLean, was having his sixth start and won after 31 weeks off. He was sent to the farm as he apparently wasn’t putting any effort in. The holiday seems to have worked.
The runner-up and favourite Cumbre Vieja led for much of the journey, but was shifting late, and surely can’t be long in winning.
The combination of Kabelo Matsunyane, Brett Crawford and owner Jason Murugasa grabbed a double when the Klawervlei-bred Festival Chic, who displaced the highly regarded Little Suzie as tote favourite, went gun-to-tape to win the fourth race, the Pick 6 opener.
Crawford saddled a 1-2, with the 4yo National Disgrace, staying on smartly.
With light rain falling at the start of the Maiden Plate (F&M) 1400m, Little Suzie’s rider JP van der Merwe said that the track was ‘stickier’ than he expected after three days of sunshine, and that a patch at around the 800m marker had done him no favours.
Gary Player celebrated his second victory of the day when the Wilgerbosdrift & Mauritzfontein bred Vercingetorix gelding Holding Thumbs (9-4) running away from his opposition in the straight to win the Jackpot opener, the R120 000 Class 4 mile contest.
“We thought at one time that he’d be our Derby horse but he kept growing – he’s all of 17,2 hands!” enthused trainer Glen Kotzen of the R1 million National 2yo Sale graduate.
Piet Botha’s Das Gute (14-1) was last into the straight, and made up plenty of ground on the outside to run second.
The tote favourite Master Of Paris (9-2) drifted at the off and finished in midfield.
With only seven runners lining up at the 1800m marker, the sixth race, a Class 3 event, produced a great finish and went the way of the good-looking Otto Luyken (18-10), who scored an overdue victory – his last win was in December 2022.
Aldo Domeyer got the 5yo Flower Alley gelding up in the last stride to pip Blue Bay, and Salvator Mundi – also in the Bortz silks – who looked a winner late in the race. A R180 000 Cape Yearling Sale purchase, Otto Luyken has often flattered only to deceive, but can now go on and add to his 3 wins from 17 starts.
Justin Snaith and a muddied JP van der Merwe after the running of the sixth race today (Pic – Cape Racing)
The seventh race was to be the final of the day and it proved a double for Gareth van Zyl, with Grant van Niekerk (a double on the day) guiding the fancied King Pelles to victory in the R105 000 C Stakes.
The Drakenstein-bred son of deceased sire Duke Of Marmalade, a R475 000 National Yearling Sale purchase, banked an overdue second win.
The Bipot, PA, Pick and Jackpot all qualified for dividends.
The next scheduled Cape racemeeting is on Wednesday 21 August at Hollywoodbets Durbanville.
