A course record that wasn’t. The announcement of Gavin Smith’s 2yo Cruzador having broken the 1000m course record at Fairview on Friday when winning his second consecutive start has since been found to have been invalid as the race was hand-timed.
The Muhtafal filly Scandal, who beat the accomplished Normanz in the Glendore Sprint on 2 December 2016, established a very nifty 54,38 secs and that record stands.
But that shouldn’t detract from a promising second win from two starts for the Ascot Stud-bred Cruzador.
Lyle Hewitson gets Cruzador’s head down in the final stride (Pic – Pauline Herman)
By Crusade out of twice winning Fort Wood mare Norbury, the grey Cruzador is fast and showed courage when winning by a short head – beating three fillies who were all receiving weight from him.
Cruzador clocked 54,19 secs. But it apparently wasn’t electronically clocked.
Phumelela East Cape General Manager Luciano Passerini says that it is standard procedure that the Judge does a hand-held back-up. And he believed a technical issue had led to the electronic time switch not kicking in.
