Fairview has the honour of hosting the final feature event of a long and rough racing season on Friday when the R85 000 Listed Champion Juvenile Cup will be run at Fairview over the turf 1400m.
This juvenile feature boasts some impressive winners over the years, with the Cape visitors often to the fore.
But Summerveld trainer Mike Miller looks to buck that trend as he makes an heroic bid to secure a unique R500 000 bonus.
He travels with the Mauritius owned Walls Of Dubrovnik, who finished a solid third in the KZN Yearling Sale Million over 1300m at the Vodacom Durban July meeting last Saturday.
Long road trip for Walls Of Dubrovnik (Pic – Candiese Lenferna)
David Thiselton reports that Walls Of Dubrovnik will make an audacious last gasp attempt to land a R500 000 bonus by travelling down to Port Elizabeth.
Here’s the story. When the new Hemel ‘n Aarde stallion Fencing Master arrived in South Africa in 2016 stallion manager David Allan of David Allan Bloodlines announced a R1-million bonus to be potentially distributed among the three best two-year-olds conceived by this stallion in his first covering season.
UK-based Colin Bird owns Fencing Master and Allan announced that in support of the British-bred stallion the owner, trainer and breeder of his three best black type two-year-olds conceived in 2016 would receive respective bonuses of R500 000, R300 000 and R200 000.
On first interpretation it seems the money will be split between owner, trainer and breeder.
Friday is officially the last day of the season, so the Champion Juvenile Cup has allowed the two-year-old colt an eleventh hour opportunity to land the bonus.
On Saturday he had his second run in the famous Gujadhur family colours. The Gujadhurs of Mauritius own one of the oldest racing stables in the world and are viewed virtually as royalty by the island’s passionate racing public.
Walls Of Dubrovnik went within 1,4 lengths of claiming the R500 000 cheque on June 13 when finishing fourth in the Gr3 Godolphin Barb Stakes over 1100m. He would have gained black type with a third-place finish.
He was subsequently sold to the Gujadhurs.
Mike Miller’s son and assistant, Sterling, said the colt had come out of his race on Saturday well.
He added: “The 1400m is a bit of a stretch but he should get it if ridden correctly. On Saturday he came from near last to run third.”
He does have a tough draw of eight out of ten to overcome and will be ridden by Shadley Fortune.
Walls Of Dubrovnik is already in PE and will be taken care of in PE by Gavin Smith.
Global Drummer – top class youngster (Pic – Pauline Herman Photography)
If there is anything to stop Shadlee Fortune on the Miller traveller, then it could be one of the Global View duo of Global Ash and Global Drummer.
The latter particularly appeals as a winner of the East Cape Nursery and Dahlia Plate, and one of the Windy City’s top juveniles this season.
He meets the Snaith’s Tarantino on 2kgs better terms after beating him 2,75 lengths in the Dahlia last time.
Interestingly, there is another Fencing Master in the field in the shape of the Juan Nel-trained Golden Sabre. He gets the blinkers fitted, but his form is rather ordinary and he has show next to nothing in three starts.
