A terrific comeback from a hopeless position 200m from home gave Sean Tarry’s promising Western Winter 3yo Buckland an unlikely victory in Saturday’s R150 000 Gold Rush Sprint run over 1100m at Turffontein.
Buckland (S’manga Khumalo) gets up down the inside of Pure Blonde (Callan Murray) in the final stride (Pic – JC Photos)
S’manga Khumalo was seen at his brilliant best as he registered his fifth winner of the afternoon and had trainer Sean Tarry confirming that he was happy to have the top jockey on his team.
Buckland was pencilled into the little black book some time back as a horse with massive potential.
But things have not always gone his way for one reason and another and there is little doubt that the 1100m of Saturday’s race is at the absolute minimum end of his comfort zone.
He took forever to get going and was hailed a beaten horse by commentator Alistair Cohen at the 300m.
But with Pure Blonde running freely out front, a determined Khumalo got Buckland into gear and he rallied powerfully.
Racing in the familiar red and white of the Rattrays, Buckland got the verdict by a whisker to add to jockey Callan Murray’s frustrating day of seconds and deny Pure Blonde a win that looked done and dusted at the 100m marker.
The 14-10 winner clocked a time of 62,43 secs.
Stakes winner Isca showed good pace on his return from a 14 week break and ran third, a further two lengths back. He can only improve further next time.
The Justin Snaith trained Lineker was never in the hunt and ran a disappointing race out of the money. It may be time to consider gelding!
The 3yo Buckland has won 3 races from 8 starts with 4 places for stakes of R 264 775.
The Lammerskraal bred Buckland is a son of the ill-fated champion Western Winter out of the three-time winning Fort Wood mare, Inupiat.
