The KZN raiding team of Dennis Drier and Sean Veale broke their 2017 Cape summer season ice with an impressive victory by the exciting Var flyer Sommerlied in Saturday’s R150 000 Listed Laisserfaire Stakes (F&M) over the Kenilworth 1100m straight.
Sean Veale produces Sommerlied late to beat Casual Diamond (Brandon May) and Felicity Flyer (Robert Khathi) in a thriller (Pic – Chase Liebenberg Photography)
The handicap had an open look about it, with a good few decent speedsters looking to be in need of it after breaks.
With good wins over the seasoned male speed merchants Brutal Force and Sergeant Hardy – as well as the Scottsville 1000m record to her credit – it was surprising to see Sommerlied so easy to back at 7’s. But to be fair, some may have noted that the sole blot on her copybook was an inexplicably poor run at Kenilworth on 10 December 2016, where she was examined by the Vet post race. She was notably rested seven months after that below par effort. So something went wrong.
The Drier summer string have also looked to be in need of a feet-finding first run and with whispers about the Crawford star Quick Brown Fox working up a storm, the Var flyer was allowed to drift.
But the enthusiastic Sean Veale had other plans for Sommerlied fans and he produced the Durban Dash winner late in proceedings to give the high-riding Maine Chance Farms team their second feature success in 72 hours, after Girl On The Run won the Gr3 Victory Moon Stakes at Turffontein on Thursday.
Maine Chance Racing Manager Glen Hatt leads the winner in as Sean Veale tells how easy it was (Pic – Chase Liebenberg Photography)
Under a confident ride by her regular pilot, Sommerlied swept through the middle to get the better of Casual Diamond by a long neck in a time of 64,98 secs.
Longshot Felicity Flyer ran a cracker to come out of the pack and grabbed third cheque to deny the winner’s talented stablemate Anime.
If there were disappointments, it would have to be Quick Brown Fox (3,05 lengths) and Live Life (6,10 lengths). Both are very talented sprinters and may have needed the outing more than was anticipated after long rests.
Sommerlied has won 5 of her 6 starts for stakes of R369 375.
Bred and raced by Maine Chance Farms, she is by champion Var (Forest Wildcat) out of Sommermarchen (Pentire – Simply Red by Dashing Blade), who won at 1850m in Germany from two starts, and was retired injured. She is a half-sister to four stakes winners.
Pentire is a son of Be My Guest and won 8 and and £911,037, racing in Great Britain, Ireland, France, Japan, U.A.E.
His successes included the Gr1 Irish Champion Stakes, the Gr1 King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes, the Gr2 King Edward VII Stakes and the Gr2 Great Voltigeur Stakes – beating Singspiel and Luso.
