Piere Strydom salutes as Louis The King gets the better of his stablemate, Killua Castle (JC Photos)
Fairytales do come true – even in horseracing! The outstanding Black Minnaloushe colt Louis The King underlined his enormous popularity amongst the horseracing public as he provided the sponsors and the powers-that-be with a beautifully packaged marketing freebie by storming to a breathtaking victory in Saturday’s Gr1 R2 million Sansui Summer Cup at Turffontein.
The 2014 SASCOC Triple Crown champion has always been a crowd favourite with his relatively unfashionable parentage and his rags-to-riches story of a poor boy made good.
The movie image of the underdog (seems a touch opportune to label a horse who has earned close on R5 million and won three Gr1’s with that tag) swooping from lengths back and beating the best with South Africa’s greatest jockey of all time aboard, has got to be the stuff of marketing dreams.
And after Piere Strydom’s recordbreaking feat of achieving 5000 winners just a week earlier at Kenilworth, the past seven days has been an emotional and sentimental joyride of delight for anybody who loves the game.
And let’s not forget the professional achievements of Louis’ trainer Geoff Woodruff, who maintained his stranglehold on the Sansui Summer Cup when he also saddled Saturday’s gallant runner-up, Killua Castle, who was a winner everywhere, but the post.
Despite the shock scratching of his leading prospect Master Sabina at lunch-time on Tuesday, which saw Woodruff’s attack reduced to four runners, he still managed somehow to strategise a repeat of his winning exacta of 2013.
And what a truly terrific ride by Strydom after the young Akash Aucharuz looked to have poached a winning lead into the 300m on the Australian bred, Killua Castle – a lesser fancied Woodruff contender.
Aucharuz, who heads off home on Sunday to ride in the Mauritius International Jockey Challenge next weekend, must have been kissing the trophy in his head into the final stages, after he had catapulted the 66 to 1 son of Churchill Downs clear.
But the Strydom genius is seldom denied and the master produced the 18 to 10 favourite with a sustained run to overcome a flat spot late (something we have seen before) to win by 0,25 lengths in a time of 126,33 secs.
Piere Strydom – impeccable judge
The Victory Moon Stakes winner Judicial ran on strongly to nab third, ahead of Gold Cup winner Wavin’ Flag, who was a well-beaten but meritorious fourth after an interrupted prep.
The muddling pace,a souped up version of the traditional favourite, the Cape Crawl, would have done a few of them no favours and while it is difficult singling out disappointments in a fascinating and hard fought race, there will always be post-mortems.
Beyond Rake’s Chestnut (thirteenth and 10,50 lengths behind) and the consistent Bold Inspiration who faded right out to seventeenth and 14,25 lengths behind, who were a touch disappointing, most of them tried their hearts out.
An elated Piere Strydom, surely SA horseracing’s newsmaker of the year, said that things turned out ‘above my expectations’.
“Everything is going so well. Last time he kicked quickly and tired. Today they eased it up and I landed up three wide. With the going cut up down the inside it was a blessing in the end. In the straight they went past me quicker. I really thought the leader had me beaten. But a combination of him tiring slightly and Louis kicking, clinched the deal,” said Strydom.
He added his appreciation to Geoff Woodruff – ‘most of my winners are from him’.
Trainer Geoff Woodruff confirmed the winner’s tag of ‘the people’s horse’.
“I love the joy he brings everybody – this race was planned for a long time – and I have so many people to thank,” he said.
Geoff Woodruff – memorable day
Woodruff added that Louis The King’s sire Black Minnaloushe was ‘a bit of an unsung hero.’
Louis The King has now won 7 races with 3 places from his 11 starts for stakes of R4 802 500.
His dam, Pamushana, a twice-raced maiden by Rich Man’s Gold, was sold in foal to Black Minnaloushe for R20k at the 2010 Vintage Broodmare sale, to The Alchemy.
The subsequent foal (Louis The King) changed hands for R55 000 at the KZN Yearling Sale to Limestone Thoroughbreds. Louis is the only foal of the mare, who has since died.
The Alchemy also bred the shock Dingaans winner, Unparalleled, who came home to upstage KZN challenger Harry’s Son earlier.
While rain came down earlier and the picnic sites were dampened, the day appeared to be a major success with the bumper Pick 6 going all the way to R5 528 692.
It was also a notable and succesful first Summer Cup call for up-and-coming racecaller Alistair Cohen.
Piere Strydom was stood down for the rest of the day.
But we weren’t going to whinge or deny him – his job had been done!
