Girl Of The Month! Miss October races clear under Gunter Wrogemann (JC Photos)
The Var mare Miss October came out of her unplaced Summer Speedsters Stakes run on the Vaal sand four days earlier to run out an impressive winner of the R250 000 Gr3 Tommy Hotspur Handicap at Turffontein on Tuesday evening.
The very smart daughter of Var has been a revelation since her relocation from KZN to the North and that fact is a serious tribute to the skills of Geoff Woodruff. That actually takes some doing as there are very few, if any, trainers in this country capable of improving on anything Dennis Drier may have touched.
Miss October’s Thursday Vaal sand experiment (an expensive one for some at 9 to 10) may have flopped but that hardly mattered here as she put some serious male speedsters to shame in good style.
Midnight Serenade stood in the stalls as the field of nine were despatched.
Jade Bay scooted off in the cheek pieces to lead the field by three lengths from Miss October and Tommy Gun, with Sharp Design in contention.
As they raced into the 300m Jade Bay came under pressure as Sharp Design was hard ridden.
Calling The Winners. Geoff Woodruff trains Miss October
Gunter Wrogemann produced Miss October at the 200m marker down the inside and he kept glancing to his outside as the longshot Romeo Dandy loomed menacingly.
Despite the outsider’s valiant attentions Miss October rolled all the way to the line and went on to win at 7 to 1 by a neck in a time of 56,51 secs.
Dom Zaki’s Rodeo Dandy ran a nice race in second in a return to form, with the omnipresent topweight Sharp Design and the late finishing Kinematic Countess sharing the third cheque.
Jade Bay faded out after showing pace to run fifth, while the fancied 3yo Tommy Gun was always under a vigorous ride by Francois Naude and he finished in seventh and four lengths behind.
Miss October should make a lovely broodmare when that time comes and will be a smart addition to the paddocks with her newly earned and well deserved bold black type.
She is now a winner of 5 races with 6 places from her 18 starts, and may have more to come on the strength of this showing.
She has earned a total of R508 937.
Miss October was bred by Northfields Stud and is by Var out of the unraced daughter of Devon Air, Bushgirl(by Huntingdale).
That makes her a full sister to the 2011 Gr1 Mercury Sprint winner August Rush.
Miss October races in the interests of Messrs David Abery, Ferdi Dippenaar, C N Francis, T Keating and Neil Patrick Smith.
At this rate the next stop for her could be a bash at the Computaform Sprint.
