Yogas Govender took Sabine Plattner Racing to one of their most memorable highs when he saddled the 7yo Martial Eagle to win the 2013 J&B Met.
The now Summerveld based conditioner has always been keen to find another Cape Summer Season Gr1 winner and after Sunday’s Greyville feature, the R130 000 KZN Guineas Trial, there are some serious travel plans afoot!
Muzi Yeni steers Arianos Shadow to victory (Pic – Candiese Marnewick / Gold Circle)
The quietly spoken Yogas stepped into Brett Crawford’s shoes in 2009 when his former boss went on his own, and he held the reins at the Plattner Racing Headquarters at Rondeberg on the Cape West Coast until February 2015.
Watch his Met win below
It hasn’t been a walk in the park over the past three and a half years trying to establish himself in a narrow and competitive market, but with his solid grounding, family support and natural will to succeed, Yogas has boxed on relentlessly.
“It’s very exciting to have a really smart horse again and Arianos Shadow is probably the top 3yo filly in KZN. That’s a great honour for me and I believe she has earned the chance and is good enough to take her place in the Cape Fillies Guineas. Mr Logan (her owner) and I are keen to take our chances and as you know Cape Town is my adoptive home town! I think she will relish the long run-in of the Kenilworth summer course as she doesn’t enjoy being bustled and she is getting stronger – this was her first run at a mile and she will be best around 1400m to 1600m I feel.”
Met winners Yogas Govender and Aldo Domeyer
Yogas said that with the Guineas two months away, he would not be looking at doing too much with the daughter of Querari.
“You can see that she is lightly raced as she has a few issues. So I am unlikely to race her in the Cape before the feature,” he told the Sporting Post.
In a seven horse field that included a duo of promising Sean Tarry-trained two-time winners, Muzi Yeni had Arianos Shadow three lengths off pacesetter Miss Calypso and Generous Lady.
Produced at the 300m, Arianos Shadow powered home to register smart 1,75 length win in a time of 99.62 secs.
Generous Lady was always thereabouts and stayed on for third ahead of the Sean Tarry pair of Sweet Mary Lou and Second Request – the latter being left with far too much ground to make up by apprentice Luke Ferraris.
As her trainer suggests, Arianos Shadow looks a very decent 3yo in the making.
She was runner-up behind Equus nominee Temple Grafin in the Gr2 The Debutante and has won 3 of her 5 starts for stakes of R300 300.
The Narrow Creek Stud bred daughter of Querari (Oasis Dream) is the third foal of the unraced Count Dubois mare, Counting Gold. Both of her previous offspring in Harrison (Sarge) and Momo (Ideal World) won.
