Main Defender is in gate 5 – his muzzle is wedged in the gate
With the favourite Main Defender declared a non-runner after appearing to get his muzzle caught up in the left-hand grille of the starting gate, the balance of the big guns were forced to eat humble pie in testing conditions in the R1,5 million Wilgerbosdrift HF Oppenheimer Gr1 Horse Chestnut Stakes at Turffontein on Saturday.
Cosmic Speed (Craig Zackey) wins the Wilgerbosdriftt H F Oppenheimer Gr1 Horse Chestnut Stakes (Pic – Candiese Lenferna)
Main Defender’s action of turning his head and making contact with the gate saw the handler release the gelding momentarily late, and this was deemed by the Stipes to have impacted his chances. He was thus declared a non-runner, and his backers got a refund, while the Cosmic Speed supporters incurred a 40% deduction.
And it was national log-leader Craig Zackey who celebrated a personal Gr1 double when getting the Sean Tarry-trained Cosmic Speed home in what turned out to be a dramatic race.
Cosmic Speed tracked the gutsy pacesetter Texas Red and Barbaresco for much of the journey, before edging forward at the 250m.
Mary Slack and Craig Zackey enjoy the win (Pic – Candiese Lenferna)
With Zackey in a rampant mood, Cosmic Speed (8-1) stayed on best to beat the gallant Texas Red (40-1) by 1,75 lengths in a time of 101,28 secs for the mile.
As the soldiers fell by the wayside, Hollywood Racing’s 6yo Imilenzeyokududuma (50-1) came flying through late to grab third, ahead of the 3yo Greaterix (11-2), who was the tote favourite after Main Defender’s no show.
Bred by Maine Chance Farms, the winner, a half brother to the well-performed Cosmic Highway (Gimmethegreenlight), is a son of Oasis Dream stallion Querari out of the one-time winning Silvano mare, Cosmic Dream.
Now a winner of 4 races with 3 places from 8 starts, Cosmic Speed has earned R1 648 750 in stakes. He was purchased for R725 000 at the 2023 National Yearling Sale and is raced by Mrs H Kuhn, Krishen Naidoo and The Hon Justice G N Kruger.
