Anton Marcus pushes Pecan Nut out to her first stakes win
Horse Chestnut’s smart daughter Pecan Nut showed her appreciation for the Greyville Polytrack when scoring a courageous and well-deserved first stakes victory when staying on best to win the R150 000 Listed Off To Stud Stakes under Anton Marcus.
The pretty 4yo grey filly was having her fifth start in KZN and added to the impressive Stan Elley raiding party strike rate this KZN Champions Season. With Durban July runner-up Punta Arenas lining up in next Saturday’s Gr1 Champions Cup, the popular Elley could bring the curtain down on his 41 year career in a blaze of glory.
He was on Tellytrack duty at Kenilworth and picked up a quick double when Ledbury shed his maiden just an hour later at the Southern Suburbs venue.
With Anton Marcus balloted to ride Pecan Nut in this leg of the Interprov Rider Cup, the Elley filly had her supporters, despite her modest fairly ordinary recent form, and went off at 4-1.
Always up with the pace, she stayed on strongly in the field of twelve, and went on best to win by 2 lengths in a time of 95,34 secs. She races in the Braam Van Huyssteen silks, which have been in the winner’s enclosure all over the country this season.
Stan Elley – bang in form
An old and proven hand on this surface, the Dennis Drier runner Red Label (joint favourite with Euphoria at 7-2) made good ground under Piere Strydom to finish second, ahead of Resolution who also made up plenty of ground from a wide draw.
The disappointment of the race was the Johan Janse Van Vuuren runner Euphoria who had nothing to offer and ran out of the money after appearing to have been given every chance by Muzi Yeni.
The Connemara Stud-bred Pecan Nut is a daughter of the ill-fated Horse Chestnut out of the three-time winning Argentinian-bred Ringaro mare, Printemp, who has produced a host of winners.
Like Pecan Nut, a grey, she won the 1991 JB Mcintosh Fillies Classic at the same track in the hands of champion jockey Felix Coetzee – that’s 24 years ago!
The winner cost R160 000 on the Cape Premier Yearling Sale Book and took her earnings to R326 800 with her fifth win and eight places from 22 starts.
There was no news on jockey Sean Cormack, who took a fall on Zacharias, and was stood down for the rest of the day.
