Milnerton trainer Paul Reeves established himself as the kingpin of the Cape raiders by cementing his outstanding Fairview win strike-rate when he produced the Var mare Sea Cat in fine trim to grab top honours in the R150 000 Listed Lady’s Bracelet at Fairview on Friday. Reeves won the same race in 2014 with Nonki Poo.
Sea Cat (JP van der Merwe) dashes clear to win smartly (Pic-Coastal Photos)
With Wayne Agrella being stood down, it was left to JP van der Merwe to pick up the chance ride on the 3-1 second favourite, who races these days in the famous Oppenheimer yellow and black flag.
Kumiko was out of the pens like a scalded cat and led Topless and the fancied Sunset Tripp for the first 1000m.
JP van der Merwe – great ride
Replacement rider JP van der Merwe had Sea Cat across from her wide draw and tracking the favourite Sunset Tripp for much of the journey.
Into the home run, Kumiko came down the inside and was guarding her big lead with Topless chasing down the centre, as Sea Cat was angled wide for her challenge.
Kumiko shortened her stride close to home as JP van der Merwe delivered Sea Cat on the outside of Purely Atomic.
The two went head to head for a few strides, before Sea Cat asserted her superiority to go on and win smartly by 1,75 lengths in a time of 96,94 secs.
It was Sea Cat’s first win since April 2014.
Trainer Paul Reeves – nice feature winner
Trainer Paul Reeves, who picks the PE cherries with some astute planning, was on course.
“She is a little gypsy and loves to travel. She also trains herself largely and needs to find something new to do every day. She is a very, very special mare to us and ran a phenomenal race. It was a great ride from JP too and I must say well done to Mary and Jessica (Slack),” said an elated Reeves.
Jockey JP van der Merwe rode a double on the day, to share riding honours with his senior colleague, Andrew Fortune and Robert Khathi.
“I didn’t want to get caught behind the bad ones. I sat behind the favourite and was always going well – even maybe a little too well. But she produced it when I asked,” he said.
The Collingwood Stud-bred Sea Cat is a daughter of Var out of the Hansel mare Hansea, who won in the USA and produced winners in that country, as well as France and Italy.
Sea Cat was bought for a bargain R20 000 at the Cape Premier Yearling Sale Book 2 but changed hands for an unknown sum in mid-career, when purchased by Wilgerbosdrift and Mauritzfontein, for whom she has had five runs.
She left the Reeves yard for Mike De Kock at the time of changing hands, but never raced for the champion stable.
Karl Zechner – 50 winners
She has now won 5 races (3 of those at Fairview) with 6 places from 21 starts and took her stakes tally to R365 500.
It was a largely forgettable race for Justin Snaith, after his 16-10 favourite Sunset Tripp fell away to run a poor last.
But the Cape family outfit were pleased to celebrate a notable milestone of achieving 100 winners for the season – not bad going after just five months under the belt.
Jockey Karl Zechner also reached a happy milestone at the New Year’s Day meeting, when he got the longshot Pepe up to win the last and register his 50th winner this season.
