Roy Magner’s Taikonaut produced the finishing burst of the afternoon under Muzi Yeni at the Vaal on Saturday when the son of Twice Over reeled the Gr3 Protea Stakes winner Karangetang in late to win the R175 000 World Sports Betting Sophomore 1000 in the style of a horse with more to come.
Erupt’s smart son Karangetang is back to peak fitness after a break and change of stables, and the speedy chestnut looked to have matters in the bag as he hit the 100m marker full of running under Grant van Niekerk.
Muzi Yeni drives Taikonaut up the inside to snare Karangetang (Pic – JC Photos)
But the competitive Muzi Yeni had other ideas and he persisted with Taikonaut (3-1) down the inside with the bay getting up in the shadow of the post to win by a quarter length in a time of 57,39 secs.
Karangetang (15-2) shouldn’t be long in winning again and stayed on well.
The winner cost Hong Kong owner Robert Chung R600 000 at the 2021 BSA August 2yo Sale and took his stakes tally to R284 990 with his third win with 4 places from 9 starts.
Bred by Cheveley, Taikonaut is a son of Twice Over out of the four-time winning Captain Al mare, Earth’s Orbit.
Watch the replay here:
