Piere Strydom keeps Sabadell in front to win the Wolf Power (Pic: JC Photos)
A peach of a ride by Piere Strydom, coupled with the enthusiasm and renewed commitment of Geoff Woodruff’s Var gelding Sabadell, provided the fireworks with an impressive victory in the R150 000 Listed Wolf Power 1600 run at Turffontein on Saturday.
Sabadell is living proof that horses can improve well into their racing careers and the top trainer said that he felt ‘almost bad’ that he had run the strapping specimen as a 2yo.
The Woodruff stable had a trio of runners in the first of the afternoon’s three features, and while Sabadell produced a pleasing showing, the same could not be said of the other two.
The 22 to 1 favourite Shadow Ofhis Smile carried top weight and was not disgraced as he tried hard and moved up dangerously, ultimately managing to stay on for fourth.
Rake’s Chestnut continues to disappoint and he ran a dismal seventh and five lengths behind. The son of Horse Chestnut has not improved with gelding and short of Woodruff throwing the kitchen sink at him in terms of headgear, we would not be surprised to see him relocating one of these fine days to Tara Laing in PE – often a profitable second base for the Jooste ‘discards’.
The race worked out perfectly as strategised by Piere Strydom, as he allowed Sabadell to track Morpheus all the way around.
Into the final 400m, Strydom unleashed Sabadell and he went for broke with the longshot Glorious Jet flying down the inside rail.
In a drive to the wire, the 33 to 10 second favourite Sabadell held on well and won by a length in a time of 96,67secs from the improved again Glorious Jet.
Bouclette Top continues to threaten to win and he came on for third, with Shadow Ofhis Smile running into fourth and only 2,75 lengths behind for fourth
Piere Strydom said afterwards that he had a choice of rides and that he was happy to have been on the right one.
“I could have ridden Rake’s Chestnut. I’m glad I got on the right one. Sabadell quickened better than the horse in front of him , but still tries to get out of it when he hits the front.”
Geoff Woodruff said that Sabadell had been a ‘big baby at 2 but that he had improved and matured nicely:
“He is a big fellow and stands nearly 17hh. This was an excellent ride by Piere Strydom and a pleasing win. I am disappointed a little with Shadow Ofhis Smile. As for Rake’s Chestnut, I don’t think there are any excuses.”
Sabadell has now won 6 races with 9 places from 25 starts for stakes of R536 575.
He is a Litchfield Stud-bred son of Var out of the unraced Badger Land mare, Girl From Grenada.
