The late withdrawal at the start of hot favourite Exquisite Touch threw a dark cloud for many punters over the R150 000 Listed Gardenia Stakes at Turffontein on Thursday evening.
Ryan Munger rides a pearler to keep Queen Laurie going (Pic: JC Photographics)
Nobody’s detracting from a brave showing by Grant Maroun’s gutsy Great Britain filly Queen Laurie, but how does horseracing keep shooting itself in both feet with a structure and process that can only chase punters away?
With the odds-on Exquisite Touch injured at the gate, the button was pressed and Jackpot players were given no time to restructure their bets. Exotic players were left with the eventually unplaced Daring Diva as tote favourite.
Not everybody was crying afterwards! Ryan Munger – a cool ride
An unmitigated disaster for all those punters who treat this like the brain game – and Saftote must have lost over fifty percent of their turnover on the race by means of refunds. And we are supposedly trying to create winners?
This is not the first time – it won’t be the last. But nobody seems to be listening.
But let’s focus on the winners.
Full marks to Ryan Munger for a neatly judged ride. He hit the front on the pacy Queen Laurie at the 300m and kept the speedball going to withstand a bold late effort from Winter Watch under Piere Strydom, who denied Movie Show the second cheque.
The winner’s time was a fairly hasty 57,43 secs.
The Gr3 placed Queen Laurie has lived in the shadow of her more talented stablemate Wrecking Ball but she finally put a deserved stakes success together.
A daughter of Great Britain (Green Desert), she was bred by Kevin Hunter’s Worldwise Breeding and is out of the five time winner Maggie Kay (Lecture).
She has won 3 races with 6 places from 15 starts for stakes of R355 450.
