A delighted Marco Van Rensburg drives Cool Chardonnay up to beat Henry Higgins (Pic – JC Photos)
Weiho Marwing looks to have a decent Derby prospect on his hands after the Antonius Pius gelding Cool Chardonnay stayed on best to beat a seasoned field of older stayers in the R150 000 Listed Aquanaut Handicap run over 2400m at Turffontein on Saturday.
With inclement weather well entrenched over Turffontein by this stage of the afternoon, this race was to be the unscheduled final event of the programme after the tenth race was abandoned.
With Cool Chardonnay’s handy galloping weight of 52kgs, jockey Marco Van Rensburg was not scared to take the fight to his opposition early in the home straight after Shimmering Gem and Qatar Springs had taken them along ahead of Savage Wind.
The son of Antonius Pius ran all the way to the line as the ever consistent Henry Higgins made up 12 lengths inside the 200m after traffic problems, to get within a length and a quarter of the winner.
Cool Chardonnay clocked a time of 155,50 secs and would have made a few people happy as he had been backed from 14 – 1 to 6 – 1.
Savage Wind stayed on well for third a further quarter length back. The fancied Akii Bua failed to make an impression and finished downfield.
Cool Chardonnay has now won 3 races with 2 places from 7 starts for stakes of R208 000.
The Highands Farms bred Cool Chardonnay is a son of Antonius Pius out of the American-bred Touch Gold mare Wine Dark Sea, who won twice.
Weiho Marwing signed for him for just R80 000 on the 2013 Emperors Palace National Two Year Old Sale.
After this solid performance, he looks very likely to line up in the SA Derby.
Racing was abandoned after this race.
