Easy Does It! Checcetti (Marco Van Rensburg) finishes full of running to win the Gerald Rosenberg
It is not often that Mike De Kock trained horses win Group races at double figure odds. If you missed out on Checceti’s win in Saturday’s R300 000 Gr2 Gerald Rosenberg Stakes run over 2000m at Turffontein, then you are going to have to wait some for this value train to come by again.
The Summerhill Stud bred daughter of Kahal is very talented as she showed again on Saturday, but as she had not won since her resounding success in the 2012 Gr3 Jacaranda Handicap, punter’s short memories allowed her to run far more freely at 13 to1 than she should have in a small field.
In fact history shows that Checcetti once ran third to her brilliant stablemate Igugu in the Gr2 Ipi Tombe Challenge. We should also know by now that De Kock doesn’t keep mares in training to boost his turnover. If they there, they are out and fit enough to win.
It was another daughter of Kahal, in Paul Peter’s Enchanted Kingdom, who was backed to favourite, the confidence no doubt bolstered by the engagement of Anton Marcus, after her excellent recent second in the Gr3 Jacaranda Handicap.
Her conqueror there, Cherry On The Cake (yes, the less flashy half sister to a certain Triple Tiara winner), started second favourite under Piere Strydom.
Strydom took Cherry On The Cake out from the jump and she dictated matters at her own speed as her connections believed that Enchanted Kingdom had stamina chinks in her armour. And whiel Cherry On The Cake led for most of the way, it was Marco Van Rensburg who put Checcetti in front at just the right moment, in a race where nothing much was running on late.
Checcetti won by 1,25 lengths in a time of 124,95 secs.
Cherry On The Cake ran her usual game race in second, while Pacific Dynasty charged through late for third to deny the favourite Enchanted Kingdom of a PA place.
Checcetti is out of the four time winning Royal Prerogative mare, Dancer’s Choice. She was a R320 000 Ready To Run graduate, and has won 5 races with 15 places from her 27 starts.
She took her stakes earnings to R705 400 with this premier career achievement, and massively enhanced her paddock value in the process.
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Gerald Rosenberg S. (SAf-G2) (4/27) Turffontein, South Africa, April 27, R300.000, 2000m, turf, good, 2.04.95 . 1 – CHECCETTI (SAF), 60.0, b m 5, Kahal (GB) – Dancer’s Choice (SAF) by Royal Prerogative (GB). Owner T Moodley, MF de Kock & Summerhill; breeder Summerhill; trainer MF de Kock; jockey M v Rensburg (R187.500) 2 – Cherry On The Cake (SAF), 60.0, b m 5, Strike Smartly (CAN) – Carolina Cherry (SAF) by Fort Wood (USA) 3 – Pacific Dynasty (SAF), 60.0, b m 5, Dynasty (SAF) – Pacific Sunrise (AUS) by Twig Moss (AUS) Margins: 1¼, nk, 1¾
