Visitor. Duncan Howells raids with the consistent Orange Blossom
Mike De Kock has a terrific record in this race and he provides a ready made banker bet for all our exotics at Turffontein on Saturday. The very smart UK bred filly Espumanti stands out head and shoulders in the R300 000 Gr2 Ipi Tombe Challenge.
Mike De Kock has trained three of the last four winners of this mile contest and was pipped by Lucky Houdalakis last year, when Demanding Lady beat the gutsy Louvre. The race is named in honour of the brilliant Zimbabwe bred Ipi Tombe, who was also trained by De Kock for a portion of her illustrious racing career.
The daughter of Manshood’s name translates from the Xhosa language as ‘Where is the girl?’, and punters may just have found a serious lady to lean on here in the stable elect, Espumanti.
Stand Out
On the weight for age terms of the race, Espumanti looks a good thing and her only likely challenger appears to be Geoff Woodruff’s lovely Silvano filly, Do You Remember. Do You Remember returns to racing action a 21 week break following her courageous third place in the Vodacome Durban July behind Heavy Metal.
Half of Do You Remember’s career performances have been at the highest level and she finished official runner up in the 2013 Triple Tiara, after second places to Cherry On The Top in all of the Fillies Classic, the Guineas and the Oaks.
Her colic enforced break will obviously raise fitness concerns, as her trainer would no doubt have wanted her further down the road than she is at this stage.
Stakes Opener
That surely leaves the road open to the Dansili filly Espumanti to score a first stakes win. Espumanti races in the famous Wilgerbosdrift silks and has won 4 of her 9 starts.
Her peak career run on July day, is the race that gives us the confidence to suggest her as a banker. That was a solid second in the Gr1 Garden Province Stakes behind the irrepressible Beach Beauty and Espumanti showed her race readiness with a good win in mid November.
The top two stand out in a race that lacks competitive depth, and makes the record breaking Pick Six very attainable. The visiting Orange Blossom may be best of the rest and is selected for third.
Champion Racer
Ipi Tombe was bred by Peter J. Moor. The granddaughter of Mr. Prospector was sold at the annual Zimbabwe National yearling auction in Harare for the equivalent at the time of US$30 (thirty dollars).
Based with Noelene Peech, Ipi Tombe began her racing career at age three. She had five starts at Borrowdale Park Racecourse in Harare, earning four wins and a second. She was syndicated to a group of twenty-two South African investors who brought her to race there where stronger competition for higher purse money was available.
Racing under the syndicate’s Sunmark Stable banner, Ipi Tombe owners Henk Leyenaar, Steve Tomlinson and Dave Coleman secured half a share for R250 000, the other half remaining with the Sunmark Syndicate, of which Rob Davenport was the nominee. She was sent across the border to Mike de Kock and made her SA debut on 9 March 2002, finishing second at Turffontein. She would never lose another race in her career.
After her initial defeat, Ipi Tombe then won the South African Oaks, the South African Fillies Guineas, and the Woolavington Stakes but her most important win in 2002 was in the Durban July Handicap.
Ridden by jockey Kevin Shea, Ipi Tombe came from a difficult number eighteen draw to become the first three-year-old filly to win the race in fifty years. Her performances that year earned her the South African Champion Three-Year-Old Filly title.
In August 2002, a deal was struck that resulted in Sunmark Stable retaining a twenty-five percent interest in the horse with Team Valor also holding twenty-five percent and prominent Kentucky breeder WinStar Farm the owner of the remaining fifty percent.
Shipped to winter at trainer Mike De Kock stables at Nad Al Sheba Racecourse in Dubai, Ipi Tombe made her 2003 debut in March, winning the Group II Haafhd Jebel Hatta in stakes record time. She then defeated male rivals when winning the Gr1 Dubai Duty Free Stakes in track record time. Ipi Tombe’s outstanding performances would earn her 2003 Dubai Horse of the Year honours.
Following her success in Dubai, in April 2003 Ipi Tombe was shipped to Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky where she was taken over by Elliott Walden. Ridden by Pat Day in her American debut, Ipi Tombe won the Grade III Locust Grove Handicap at Churchill Downs, making her the first horse bred in Zimbabwe to ever to win at the historic Churchill Downs track. A training injury that never healed properly resulted in Ipi Tombe being retired on 22 November 2003.
