A winner of the Glorious Goodwood Gr3 Chairman’s Cup on L’Ormarins King’s Plate day earlier this year, Gareth van Zyl saddled the 4yo Drakenstein-bred King Pelles to a good win in the R350 000 Tote Gr3 Derby at Hollywoodbets Scottsville on Saturday.
Announcing his aspirations as a potential Gold Cup prospect, the half-brother to past SA Derby winners Hero’s Honour (Await The Dawn) and Legend Of Arthur (Lancaster Bomber) stayed on smartly under Smanga Khumalo to nab Glen Kotzen’s Hollywoodbets Durban July hopeful hope Holding Thumbs by 1,20 lengths in a time of 149,21 secs for the 2400m.
Smanga Khumalo has King Pelles finishing powerfully to beat Chad Little and Holding Thumbs (Pic – Candiese Lenferna)
It was a fair run by Holding Thumbs and confirmed his improved fitness. Our efforts to contact trainer Glen Kotzen for a comment on his plans were unsuccessful.
The 8-10 favourite Future Swing, who was at 18 on the Hollywoodbets Durban July log after running second behind Field Marshal in the Lonsdale Stirrup Cup recently, appeared keen to get on with things in the preliminaries and during the early parts of the race. The 5yo fell away halfway up the straight to run 8,40 lengths off the winner. He is not likely to line up in the big race on 5 July.
Raced in partnership by Lucky Vest 12 CC (Nom:Ravi Padayachee), Messrs D MacLean, G J Player & N V Parmanand, King Pelles was chosen by the astute Gavin Van Zyl and purchased for R475 000 off the BSA National Yearling Sale.
Now a winner of 5 races with 7 places from 20 starts, King Pelles has earned R729 94729 945.
Bred by Drakenstein Stud, the winner is a son of the champion farm’s late stallion Duke Of Marmalade out of the four-time winning Galileo mare, Grail Maiden (AUS).
