The much anticipated North-South duel in the R750 000 Jonsson Workwear Gr1 Garden Province Stakes between two champions enjoyed something of a variation on a theme at Hollywoodbets Greyville on Saturday.
The ham on the sandwich was Candice Bass-Robinson’s Oldlands Stud-bred Zarina, who seems to have plenty of scope and oodles of talent, but enjoys cropping up when she is least expected.
And while she represented the ‘South’, Zarina wasn’t everybody’s idea of a likely winner.
Keagan de Melo gets Zarina up in the middle, with third placed War Of Athena (Muzi Yeni) closes to camera (Pic – Candiese Lenferna)
With the hype of a boat race between Gauteng’s SA Triple Tiara star War Of Athena and Snaith dual Gr1-winning champion Captain’s Ransom distracting punters’ attention in a tricky Pick 6, the talented filly was allowed to start at 75-1 and produced a scintillating late surge to beat Princess Calla (12-1) by a nose, with the odds-on War Of Athena gallant in defeat another nose away in third.
War Of Athena has had a long hard campaign and probably warrants a break now.
The winner, who ran out of her skin off her official 107 rating, clocked 96,13 secs for the mile as Keagan de Melo rounded off a great day after winning the Durban Gr2 Golden Horseshoe on Waterberry Lane for Dean Kannemeyer earlier.
On a day where Justin Snaith had little luck and only found his footing late, winning the last two races, Captain’s Ransom ran out of the money.
Watch the replay here:
Bred by Oldlands Stud, the winner is a third Gr1 winner for Master Of My Fate (Jet Master) and is out of the Kitalpha one-time winner, Mamalushka.
Zarina, a R200 000 Cape Yearling Sale purchase for Marsh Shirtliff, Ian Longmore and Bryn Ressell, has won 5 races with 3 places from 10 starts for stakes of R686 325.
