Merchants Magic - Splash Gold gears down.
Cape trainer Dean Kannemeyer enjoyed some welcome compensation for the bitter disappointment of Wednesday when having his July horse In Writing eliminated from the big one. His brilliant, but slightly underrated, son of Mr Prospector stallion Goldkeeper, Splash Gold, overcame an outside draw to annihilate a top field of speedsters in the R300 000 Grade 2 Post Merchants at Greyville on Friday 17 June.
The opposition was there in full force on this beautiful Friday evening at the city track. There was a lot of fighting talk from the connections of Winking Jack and Rebel Knight who had travelled from Johannesburg and by the sounds of things had prepared their acceptance speeches. Neither of these two had any chance with the winner though and Rebel Knight finished second with Winking Jack hanging on for third. The rest, including the likes of Captain’s Secret, Casey Cool and the much whispered Gaultier were left for dead.
It seems that once selecting the right horse, one half of winning the big ones is a trainer that knows how to programme and place a horse. The other half is a good lucky partner and that man Raymond Deacon’s purple and white silks were seen to good effect, yet again! The passionate owner was, most unusually, not on course as he was attending a black-tie banquet and had his daughter Lois deputing for him and his wife Paula. The other owners, Derrick Benzien and Noelene Malherbe watched the race on Tellytrack.
Viva Veterans! Karl Neisius and Albie Going celebrate the win.
Kannemeyer, who has won more Classics than any other Cape trainer, and often declares that it is the Group winners that get him up at sparrow, now finds himself with a top sprinter on his hands. He must take a lot of the credit for bringing the chestnut gelding along in a conservative manner, where the horse was allowed to find his feet and win his races in good time. The three year old has been a model of consistency having won seven races from twelve starts and he looks to have a very bright future ahead of him. He was a R150 000 Vintage purchase and has already quadrupled that figure with career earnings of R600 000.
The rest of the meeting was uneventful save for the shortening of the third and fourth races as a result of vandalism to the lighting poles at around the 2000m marker.
.
Post Merchants (SAf-G2) (6/17) Greyville, South Africa, June 17, R300.000, 1200m, turf, good, 1.10.34 (CR 1.09.10). 1 – SPLASH GOLD (SAF), 59.0, ch g 3, Goldkeeper – Splash Of Water (SAF) by Complete Warrior. Owner R W Deacon, D J Benzien & P D Deacon & N P Malherbe; breeder R Koopstad (SAF); trainer D Kannemeyer; jockey K Neisius (R198.913) 2 – Rebel Knight (SAF), 59.0, b g 4, Jet Master (SAF) – Darby Game (SAF) by Elliodor (FR) 3 – Winking Jack (SAF), 57.0. ch g 6, Super Magic (SAF)- Miss O’Hagen (SAF) by Mount Hagen Margins: 1¼, ¾, nose Also ran: Gaultier (SAF) 58.5, Captain’s Secret (SAF) 59.5, Mike’s Choice (SAF) 54.0, Shades Of Indigo (SAF) 56.0, Bush Pirate (SAF) 58.0, Casey Cool (SAF) 59.5, Copper Parade (SAF) 57.5, Cool Spender (SAF) 53.5, Rabattache (SAF) 60.0, Maliyakhe (SAF) 55.0, Jet Command (SAF) 55.0
