Still on honeymoon after recently tying the knot again, multiple SA champion jockey Piere Strydom gave his younger colleagues a lesson in judgement, confidence and poetic balance with an impeccably judged ride to get Snaith Cape Met hope Nexus up in the dying strides to win the R200 000 Gr2 Cape Racing Peninsula Handicap at a sundrenched Kenilworth on Saturday.
The son of Dynasty shortened from 50’s to 20 to 1 with Hollywoodbets for the Cape Met next month, after Strydom produced him with a dazzling turn of foot from a hopeless position to get up and win going away from Brett Crawford longshot Super Silvano (44-1) by a half length in a time of 110,71 secs.
Piere Strydom and Nexus are low-flyinjg! (Pic – Chase Liebenberg)
Riding the crest of a summer wave, the Snaith team made it four straight winners, and also saddled 25 to 1 Love Happens, who ran a cracking third.
The second Met entry home was Kannemeyer’s Seventh Gear (25-1), who ranged up dangerously in the centre around 350m out, but failed to kick on and hung on grimly for a 1,70 length fourth.
It’s clear that the 1800m plus Kenilworth summer course is one of the fairest in the country and a glance at the stats shows that over the past two years, 14 is the winningmost gate (at 50%) for the 1800m.
But that doesn’t detract in the least from the vintage Striker performance on the gelding carrying second topweight and jumping at 16 of 16.
“I kept trying to drop him in a bit but they were sneaking through on my inside all the time,” chirped the man who can’t be blamed for thinking he may have earned a Cape Met ride in the process.
Nexus is a full-brother to former Dennis Drier champion Lady In Black.
He was bred by Rathmor and is a son of Dynasty (Fort Wood) out of the five-time winning Jet Master mare, Mystery Dame.
A R1,7 million buy from the 2017 National Yearling Sale, he has now won 7 races with 7 places from 18 starts for stakes of R651 400.
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