Former Champion Jockey turned Summerveld trainer Garth Puller celebrated his second Scottsville Sunday hat-trick in a fortnight and kept his yard ticking over with an early season win strike-rate of 26 %.
Khanya Sakayi keeps Rio De La Plata at his task (Pic Candiese Marnewck/Gold Circle)
The modest veteran horseman, who is sponsored by Winning Form, said that he was pleased with the second August treble.
His debutante La Bella was ridden to a good win by Anton Marcus in the second race.
“She’s a progressive daughter of Crusade and we felt she could win first up. She is a big filly and her knees are still a bit open, so we need to give her some time. Anton thought there was a challenge looming so he pulled the stick. I think she could have won without it,”said Puller.
The up and coming 4kg claimer Khanya Sakayi, who rode his maiden career treble at the same venue a fortnight earlier, was aboard the next two Puller winners – Los Barbados and Rio De La Plata.
“Every win with these older horses is a bonus and they are not punting propositions. And it’s much weaker now too after the big guns have gone. So I’d like to believe we should be winning our races. We also had 20mm of rain in two days prior to the meeting. The two 6yo’s relished the cut in the ground and Khanya Sakayi rode both perfectly according to instructions. They both take a hard ride and he let them roll at the top of the straight. Let’s face it, the weight claim helps the cause when the youngster is talented . We saw that with Ferraris and Mbhele on Saturday.”
