2 drawn 2. That’s how easy it was to find the winner of the final South African horse race of 2022!
While Grant van Niekerk didn’t enjoy a vintage New Year’s eve at the office, the top jockey found a confidence booster ahead of Saturday’s Gr1 L’Ormarins King’s Plate day, when he steered Fort Red home for the Mike Stewart stable in the final race at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth on Saturday.
Grant van Niekerk steers Fort Red to a curtain call win (Pic – Chase Liebenberg)
The Klawervlei-bred son of Elusive Fort is now a five-time winner from his 45 starts and has been a regular earner with 15 place cheques into the bargain.
Van Niekerk gave the credit to his new Agent, Rouvaun Smit, who found the shrewdie, who is owned in partnership with veteran local owner Paul Barrett.
Richard Fourie, who rode the runner-up Poltergeist, said that his mount was full of running but when he saw Grant van Niekerk ‘who is hungry with his 6% strike rate at the moment’ out of the corner of his eye, he knew he had a race on his hands.
It was a turnaround year in many respects for Cape Racing and we look forward to bigger and better things in 2023.
Best to all of racing’s stakeholders!
