Summerveld trainer Frank Robinson delivered a knockout blow on behalf of the locals when the Oratorio filly Love Bomb downed the well-fancied Gauteng visitor Caralluma to win the R150 000 Zulu Kingdom Explorer Gr2 Golden Slipper at Hollywoodbets Greyville on Saturday.
A lengthy delay to the start caused by efforts to fit a shoe ended with another Gauteng raider in Sentbydestiny racing unshod in front.
Sean Veale steers Love Bomb to victory (Pic – Candiese Lenferna)
But that had little bearing on the outcome as Sean Veale produced Love Bomb (35-1) with a late challenge in the 1400m juvenile feature to defeat the odds-on Caralluma on full merit in a time of 84,77 secs.
Glen Kotzen’s Futura filly Jasmine was not disgraced in third.
There was little in Love Bomb’s two runs to suggest she could upstage her more fancied counterpart. An impressive debut win in modest company on the all-weather had been followed by a modest effort in the Strelitzia Stakes behind Vernichey, who had flopped earlier.
Bred by Messrs Greg Whittaker and G N Wiggill, the winner is a daughter of the internationally proven Avontuur stakes winning sire Oratorio (Danehill) – offered for a service fee special of just R20 000 this coming season – out of the Captain Al one-time winner, Boloval.
A R175 000 Cape Premier Yearling Sale graduate, she has won twice from three starts for stakes of R156 250.
