Like Father… Glen Hatt steers The Colonels Son to an easy Pick6 opening leg win.
The Kenilworth sprint course draw bias had punters and a lot of the local jockeys fooled this afternoon, with the final two races and only sprints of the day producing a R760 tote double dividend.
In a further slap in the face for Dads who travelled to Kenilworth for an early Father’s Day luncheon, the Place Accumulator paid over R52 000.
Cleaning the house and doing the windows, instead of being served breakfast-in-bed on Sunday morning, is probably going to be the norm in Cape households. The Dads went home without their shirts or bus money as the shadows lengthened over the Southern Suburbs track and the results went from bad to worse.
Trainer Joey Ramsden was the most successful conditioner on the afternoon sending out three of the first four winners on the card. But things were looking up at that point with the favourites arriving and the form making sense.
The Colonels Son provided the second Ramsden-Jooste winner and ready-made Pick6 banker for many when he skipped away to win the fourth race, a Maiden Plate over 1400m. The son of National Emblem is a Klawervlei bred and has improved nicely with each run to win well. He looks to have more to come.
Ramsden is fast progressing into Ingrid and Markus Jooste’s leading trainer and he also sent out the winner of the first, with Bernard Fayd’herbe punching a hard- ridden Wind Power out to clinch the Maiden Juvenile Plate over a mile. The winner was bred by Reggie Knight and is by Windrush out of the Desert Team mare, Fly To The Stars.
The race was marked by a jockey switch which attracted some attention on the racing chat forums.
Fayd’herbe was originally engaged by Ramsden to ride his colt, but trainer Mike Bass had unknowingly accepted Fayd’herbe to ride Captain Siderius. This was in Ramsden’s absence in KZN this week and with his assistant Ricky Sobotker administering the Ramsden acceptances for this meeting.
Ramsden explained that he had seen Fayd’herbe for the first time at Greyville on Friday evening, and the jockey had expressed a desire to fulfill his original commitment. Ramsden had agreed to do the switch, which is fully permissible within the NHA rules, if Fayd’herbe obtained Mike Bass’ consent. Bass, in a gentlemanly gesture that characterises the goodwill prevalent amongst the Cape trainers, was agreeable.
Thus nothing sinister whatsoever to report, and we appreciate the transparency.
Ramsden’s second winner was also a Windrush, this one bred by Arc En Ciel and in the silks of Gisela Burg and Martin Wickens. The two year old filly Hickory Hill quickened readily under Glen Hatt to score at 18-10 from Smart Lily and the improved and interestingly named, Strike Hot Bunny.
Chips…Here comes Burger. Again! Morne Winnaar enjoys the joyride as Chrisaldon keeps rolling at 45-1.
Full marks to Carl Burger and Morne Winnaar for working the draw out quickly in the first sprint race of the day. It certainly doesn’t seem to be rocket science either.
Burger’s previous winner, First Favour, who shed her maiden last Saturday, also went the same route from a 1 draw. By the time his colleagues wake up to the favourable inside ground, the bias would probably have swung back to the outside.
Chrisaldon had won her two previous races on very soft ground and hadn’t earned since November 2011. But she came out firing today and kept rolling from her position against the rails. The daughter of Silvano started at 45-1 and held off a good post-maiden effort from Opt For Opera by 4,50 lengths, with the Bass longshot La Belle Helene hanging on for third position, in a PA blowout.
Apprentice Anthony Andrews would have been pleased after Chrisaldon’s win, to see that he was jumping from the 1 draw in the final event, a MR 72 Handicap over 1200m.
Andrews just had to sit and balance Greg Ennion’s Lake Superior who was always going well and strode away to beat his stablemate Money For Love by 4,50 lengths with the 75-1 Lineage running third. The result proved another PA clanger and only Greg Ennion could possibly have survived, never mind doubled, in the PA!
The Higlands-bred Lake Superior is a Spectrum gelding out of the American-bred Salt Lake mare, Lake Snowy. This was Con Yiannakis’ three year old’s second win from 17 starts, and he is a fair little sprinter.
Bird-shot! Chief Pigeon(Grant Van Niekerk) is led in by assistant trainer Gavin Blake and his daughter, Gabi.
Tamburlaine sired Mike’s Choice, the winner of the Gr2 Post Merchants at Greyville on Friday evening, and the son of Royal Academy proved his versatility by producing Chief Pigeon to score a well-deserved maiden win in the third race over a mile.
Trained by Glen Kotzen, the Cheveley Stud-bred(as is Mike’s Choice) three year old is out of the excellent five-time winning Complete Warrior mare, Roman Fantasy. Chief Pigeon started her career rather slowly, but has matured and developed and deserved this runaway 3,25 length win at her ninth start. It was a memorable race for the Kotzen yard, who also saddled the runner-up, Fantasy Rock, who won’t be long in winning her race.
Chief Pigeon was saddled by Gavin Blake, who used to train in the Cape twenty years ago, and who spent some time in the UK before joining the Kotzen operation.Blake has proved a most capable custodian of the powerful winter string, while his boss commutes between Cape Town and Durban for their Champions Season campaign.
Top-ride! Richard Fourie drives Rain Gal up the outside to collar Caseys Moment and Karl Neisius.
The blinkers did the trick for the smart four year old Galileo filly Rain Gal in the fifth race, an MR 76 Handicap for fillies and mares run over 1500m.
The Australian-bred filly, once described by her owner Hassen Adams as ‘our Igugu’, narrowly foiled a dramatic betting coup on the Dean Kannemeyer-trained Caseys Moment, who was backed from 10-1 to 28-10. Richard Fourie rode a confident race with the Snaith-trained runner and had her a few lengths off the pace set by Kind Lady. Fourie produced her late down the centre, even though many punters may have thought that Karl Neisius had done enough down the inside.
A tough afternoon. But we at least have Father’s Day to recover.
