Blooming Good! Daffodil Day (closest to camera) stays on strongly to hold Silvan Spirit (Coastal Photos)
The R90 000 Walmer Handicap run over 1800m at Arlington on Friday produced a grandstand finish between two smart daughters of our newly crowned champion sire, Silvano. The Maine Chance Farms bred Daffodil Day scored an overdue win, to hold off her younger adversary Silvan Spirit, who came right back at her in the final strides.
The brilliant Silvano continues to raise the bar and churns out the winners with regularity and it wasn’t rocket science to deduce that his daughters would likely produce the exacta in this non black type event.
With the scratching of the Snaith trained Count To Ten, the field was reduced to just nine runners and the two vied for attention at the top of the betting boards.
Hazel Jay, Daffodil Day and Silvan Spirit all had a brief stab at showing the way, until Entrancer took over at the 1300m to lead and she carted them for home from Hazel Jay and Silvan Spirit, with Daffodil Day making her run at the same time.
In an exciting finish, with Silvan Spirit initially appearing to be looking the stronger of the two, the fight went right down to the wire.
After a brief tussle, Daffodil Day surged ahead under a balanced JP Van Der Merwe ride and took the initiative at the 200m marker as Stuart Randolph got the gutsy Silvan Spirit to rally again.
In a thriller the two went to the line as one, with Daffodil Day grabbing a short head decision in a time of 112,47 secs.
The pacemaker Entrancer held on for third 2,80 lengths off the winner, with our lurker Starlight Beauty staying on for fourth.
Daffodil Day is trained by Dorrie Sham, and her win completed a better week for JP Van Der Merwe.
He rode a winner at Durbanville for Glen Kotzen on Monday, and earlier in the afternoon rode a cracker to win the third race on the Clan Syndicate owned, Budweiser Boy, from a shocking draw.
Daffodil Day made her debut as a late 4yo and has been a model of consistency, winning her six races over distances ranging from 1400m to 1800m. She has also registered 11 places from her 29 starts, for stakes earnings of R369 125.
She is yet another sterling daughter of Silvano and is out of the courageous and very fast five time winning Cordoba mare, Day Lily Delight, who ran in the silks of Andre and Joyce Macdonald. She peaked with a nice win in the Gr3 Pretty Polly Stakes in 2002, under Lisa Prestwood.
Day Lily Delight was trained originally by the late Buddy Maroun and also by Dennis Drier, when moving down to KZN.
The day proved a triumph yet again for the unstoppable Snaith yard, who saddled four winners.
Their new assistant Estelle Blake has certainly made a storming start after being at the helm for only a short period of time.
