With the Hollywoodbets Scottsville Pick 6 pool reaching a healthy R3 478 262, Andre Nel’s 4yo Capoeira produced the bump in the opener when the son of Oratorio ran a gutsy race to hold off a trio of Vodacom Durban July entries.
The R125 000 Gr3 Cup Trial, a July ‘preferential ticket’ race, was a chance for the hopefuls for the big one to put up their hands, and it was Capoeira who produced the goods at 16-1 under an inspired ride from Gavin Lerena over the Capital City inside 1750m tracK.
Gavin Lerena rode a confident race on Capoeira (Pic – Candiese Lenferna)
Tracking leader Herodotus all the way around, Lerena made a bold move early in the straight, and the gelding stayed on powerfully in the Sabine Plattner finery to hold off the flying favourite Nexus (16-10) by 1,80 lengths in a time of 104,6 secs.
Cape visitor Sovereign Spirit (12-1) threatened late under Grant van Niekerk, and finished a further 0,30 lengths back in third.
The second, third and fourth horse, Pack Leader, are all July entries.
Lerena confirmed that his mount had come out the gates well and got a perfect lead behind Herodotus.
Capoeira has produced some decent feature showings but this was his first stakes success.
Capoeira has won 3 races with 5 places in 13 starts for stakes of R446 275.\
Bred by Wilgerbosdrift & Mauritzfontein, he is a 4yo gelded son of Avontuur’s internationally proven Danehill sire, Oratorio, out of the unraced Fort Wood mare Folk Dance – the dam of Paul Peter’s well-performed Folk Dance (Tiger Ridge).
