Cat And The Moon (Craig Du Plooy) charges clear to beat Jet Supreme easily (Wayne Marx)
The Braam Van Huyssteen dayglo yelow silks were prominent on the national feature front on Saturday. After Pecan Nut’s gutsy win in the Listed Off To Stud Stakes at Greyville, the consistent Justin Snaith-trained Cat And The Moon grabbed the double with an easy win over her stablemare Jet Explorer in the R250 000 Gr3 Final Fling Stakes at Kenilworth.
It is worth mentioning that recent PE maiden winner Oriental Tiger also carried the bright Van Huyssteen silks on Saturday when runner-up at just his second start in the Gr2 Umkhomazi Stakes, for trainer Yvette Bremner.
With rain in the build-up days to the Kenilworth meeting, the going was officially tagged as heavy, with the resultant testing conditions producing a few twists and turns in the form book.
With the scratching of Moonsong Magic, the Final Fling field was reduced to eight and with no pace on early, Bernard Fayd’herbe took the top-rated Jet Supreme out to play the part of pacemaker – not a role she is usually keen to play.
But she relaxed well and was still galloping strongly at the 300m.
With Alascan Maiden unwinding down the middle, Craig Du Plooy was sitting with a double handful on recent Winter Oaks winner Cat And The Moon about three lengths off and these looked the only likely threats.
Cat And The Moon finished the better and the daughter of Black Minnaloushe was switched out from a few lengths away and took off to sail past her stablemate and win going away by 1,75 lengths in a time of 114,50 secs.
She is owned by Van Huyssteen in partnership with Greg Bortz.
Alascan Maiden flattered briefly but failed to challenge the top two and she hung on for third, ahead of Dynasty’s Pride.
Craig Du Plooy – polished ride to win feature
Jockey Craig Du Plooy has rare opportunities in terms of feature rides but is an experienced and accomplished jockey who deserves many more chances and he rode a confident race on the 6-1 winner.
Cat And The Moon is a R175 000 Cape Premier Yearling Sale Book 1 graduate and has won 5 races from 1300m to 2200m, with 6 places from 16 starts and R528 025 in stakes.
This was her third stakes win and she looks to have a very bright future as she matures into her 4yo season.
The Oldlands Stud-bred winner is a daughter of Black Minnaloushe out of the one time winning Indigo Magic mare, Earn A Moon – a half-sister to Mike De Kock’s Dubai stakes winner Lucky Find and the well-performed PE stakes performer Pay The Piper.
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Gr3 Final Fling Stakes (SAf-Gr3)
Kenilworth, South Africa, July 18, R250k, 1800m, turf, heavy, 1.54.05
1 – CAT AND THE MOON (SAF), 57.5, b f 3, Black Minnaloushe (USA) – Earn A Moon (SAF) by Indigo Magic (GB). Owner Messrs Greg Bortz & A J van Huyssteen; Breeder Oldlands Stud; trainer J Snaith; jockey C du Plooy
2 – Jet Supreme (SAF), 60.0, b m 5, Jet Master (SAF) – Solea (NZ) by Zabeel (NZ)
3 – Alascan Maiden (SAF), 59.0, b f 4, Captain Al (SAF) – Polar Charge (GB) by Polar Falcon (USA)
Margins: 1.75, 2.25, 0.30
