Precedent bounced right back to her best form with a hard-fought success in the Flamboyant Stakes for fillies and mares over 1600m, which this year was staged on the inner course at Scottsville on Sunday. The race was scheduled for its traditional home at Greyville on Saturday night, but heavy rain through the week left the central Durban track unfit for racing.
Boxing Day was a red letter day for progeny of the late Strike Smartly, who sired the winners of both Gr 3 events across South Africa, and it was Rich Strike who set the ball rolling when he captured the Christmas Handicap over 1600m at Clairwood
The second half of the Boxing Day Strike Smartly Gr3 double was delivered by Two Strikes, when he ran out a game winner of the Cape Summer Stayers Handicap at Kenilworth’s “twilight” meeting on Sunday evening.
Solo Traveller gave a virtuoso performance when he ran out a relatively narrow but convincing winner of the Bloodstock SA Cape Guineas at Kenilworth on Saturday, leading the way home ahead of stable companion Run For It in a dream result for the Justin Snaith yard. In the process he gave his stable and his jockey Bernard Fayd’herbe a perfect score two-from-two score in Cape Town’s Gr 1 races contested so far this summer after the Cape Fillies Guineas triumph of his stablemate Ebony Flyer
Great things have always been predicted for Past Master from those who know him best, and the gelding took to sprinting like a duck to water when dropped to 1200m for Saturday’s WPOTA Diadem Stakes over 1200m at Kenilworth. Now it may be true that South Africa’s sprinting cupboard is a bit bare in the absence of J J The Jet Plane, but Past Master nevertheless demolished some very good rivals indeed in the Diadem, where ten of the twelve starters were past Graded Stakes winners, and looks to be versatile as well as gifted,
A Daughters Legacy could fairly have been described for most of her career as something of a Cape winter specialist. Five of her first six wins came on soft or heavy ground, including her success at Gr 3 level in the Final Fling Stakes this past August, but the mare proved that she can more than hold her own on the good going (and, dare one say, against the tougher opposition) of summer when she won the Laurie and Jean Jaffee Victress Stakes over 1600m at Kenilworth on Saturday. It surely says much for the progress which A Daughters Legacy has made during the course of this year that she could only finish eleventh in a field of 12 in the corresponding race last season
Britannia may have ruled the waves once upon a time, but her erstwhile colony of Hong Kong was dominated by South Africa for at least a few minutes on Sunday afternoon. No doubt inspired by the masters who have shown that boundaries are there to be pushed, Lucky Houdalakis and his team took a step into the brave new world and where rewarded in heart-stopping fashion when J J The Jet Plane claimed the valuable Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Sprint over 1200m at Sha Tin.
Cask looks to be a progressive four-year-old and earned himself a tilt at the J & B Met when he unleashed an impressive late turn of foot to win the Midmar Premier Trophy over 1800m at Kenilworth on Saturday. Having his second start since joining trainer Stephen Page from the now-retired Mike de Beer, Cask coped impressively with a considerable step up in grade after appearing to be an unlucky loser on his seasonal debut over 1600m four weeks earlier.
The Global Sprint Challenge (GSC) has been enhanced with the addition of Singapore’s premier turf sprint, the KrisFlyer International Sprint, from next year. The introduction of the six-furlong Group 1 event, to be held at Kranji Racecourse on 22 May, takes to nine the number of races forming the $US10.8 million series.
The Magnolia Handicap for fillies and mares over the straight 1160m at Turffontein on Saturday went the way of the solitary three-year-old in a field of 15 when Fair Rosalind arrived with a perfectly delivered late run to land the spoils with considerable comfort. Fitted with blinkers for the first time after a disappointing last effort when well supported in a Gr 3 event
Doing things the easy way is not a concept with which Gibraltar Blue is well acquainted. Trying to bury her opposition from the start is much more her life’s philosophy, and she has the raw talent to make it work. She was at it again at Turffontein on Saturday, where she made every inch of the running to win the Ipi Tombe Challenge over 1600m on the standside course.
It is no mean feat to win at feature level from 1400m to 2400m, but My Best Shot proved equal to the task and set himself up for East Cape Horse Of The Year honours – and maybe a Hollywoodbets Durban July supplementary entry?
An investigation into betting patterns, both locally and internationally, has been launched by the National Horseracing Authority
The highly anticipated first race on the revamped Hollywoodbets Greyville polytrack on Wednesday was well received by stakeholders, but was not without its drama
Cape lightweight Morne Winnaar has come a long way since being plucked from near ignominy by former Cape champion trainer Joey Ramsden over twenty years ago
