Balkan wins the first (Hamish Niven Photography)
Trainer Dennis Drier and jockey Sean Cormack got the J&B Met day show under way in flying style on Saturday when the Avontuur-bred Horse Chestnut filly Balkan came home powerfully to win the first race.
With broken blue and grey skies blanketing the track as thousands of people streamed through the turnstiles, Vaughan Marshall-trained Night Of Stars was the favourite – but may have ruined her chances by bursting though the gates. She was never in the hunt and ran out of the money.
A R100 000 National Yearling Sale graduate, the smart 3yo Balkan is out of the Quiet American mare Sea Of Calm and showed good promise winning twice early in her career.
She has now won 3 of her 8 starts for 1 place.
Sean Cormack had Balkan settled as Eros’s Girl made the running in the 1000m MR 86 Handicap, and he produced her with a sustained burst to nab a good win in the final strides.
