Desert Swirl storms home to win the feature as third placed Gothic stays on down the rail (Bay Media)
Superior reserves of raw stamina did the trick for Vaughan Marshall’s East Cape Derby winner Desert Swirl, when he outstayed his opposition to score a popular win in the R150 000 Listed Settlers Trophy run over 2400m at a sunny Durbanville on Saturday.
Jumping at what his supporters must have viewed as a generous 28 to 10 in the face of support for his classier stablemate Gothic, who went off 18 to 10 favourite, Desert Swirl went through the motions with the minimum of fuss to take his career stakes earnings to within a shout of half a bar.
Vaughan Marshall – trained and bred winner
Regular pilot MJ Byleveld knows the gelding and did well not to be caught napping in a race where the pace (a known rare commodity in the Cape) was always going to be a potential gamebreaker.
Desert Swirl was slow out, but that was more intention than fault, as MJ Byleveld tucked him cosily at the rear. Joey Ramsden’s Manx Missile led into the first turn from the keen as mustard Gothic who found himself just ahead of Man From Japan and Texas Flood.
Anthony Andrews (Manx Missile) and Karl Neisius (Gothic) exchanged thoughts and debated who was going to go and who was going to stay, before the veteran Neisius gave up the argument and let Gothic stride into the back straight.
Halfway down the back stretch, Byleveld realised the pace was subdued and took Desert Swirl around his field and tucked him behind Gothic. The move was to prove decisive.
Gothic led into the straight and looked to be going well but the energetic Desert Swirl joined forces with his stablemate at the 300m and the two provided the entertainment as they slugged it out with their six opponents battling to make an impression.
Desert Swirl’s weight advantage of 4,5kgs and superior stamina told in the final 100m as he stayed on best, with only Putney Flyer finally getting into stride and kicking on.
As they went to the line, Desert Swirl held a half length advantage with Putney Flyer breaking the Marshall exacta down the outside as he nabbed the second cheque from Gothic by a nostril.
MJ Byleveld rode the winner
Desert Swirl registered a time of 158,93 secs, which showed that they didn’t really go as slowly as we may have perceived.
The stout galloper Manx Missile hung on for fourth ahead of the filly Black Kitten, who looked dangerous late and was not entirely disgraced in a 2,60 length fifth-placed finish.
Desert Swirl has won 4 races with 6 places from his 14 starts for stakes of R447 500.
The winner was bred by his trainer Vaughan Marshall and is a gelded 4yo son of Second Empire out of the modest one-time winning Sportsworld mare, Desert Sport.
Desert Swirl is no star but continues to up his game. He was protected from the rigours of the 2014 KZN Champions Season as it was felt he needed time to mature. That move paid early dividends when he picked up the winning cheque in the Gr3 East Cape Derby in May.
How well he will cope with the stronger staying fare as the Cape summer progresses is a moot point. That said, the longhaul ranks are not exactly littered with champions though!
But what counts for now is that the cheque is in the bank for his host of owners and hats off to Marshall – the horse has been conservatively and extremely well placed so far.
On an entertaining afternoon, Byleveld and Marshall were the most successful combination with a double that included a facile win for the impressive unbeaten Jet Master 3yo Jet Set Go, in the second race.
The Avontuur bred R500 000 National Yearling Sale graduate is showing all the right signs and looks an exciting prospect.
Chris Puller gets our vote for the innovative ride of the day after he ‘burgled the fifth race on the powerful galloper Reim, who appears to love the blinkers. Chris’ Dad Glen trains the son of Caesour.
He beat a smart field, that included the Silvano colt Arion, who returned from a 33 week break but failed to emulate the feat of his impressive stablemate Dynamic last Wednesday. Arion plodded late into a well-beaten 9 length fourth.
