Slack filly may head for Ascot after win in Ireland
Owner-breeder Mary Slack is used to shopping at worldwide bloodstock sales, but she could shortly be seeking the right outfit for the famous Royal Ascot meeting in the UK in June.
Slack may well have a runner at Ascot as her Irish trainer, Fozzy Stack, is considering that target for her filly, Diamond Fields, which won the grade 3 Gladness Stakes at Naas in Ireland on Sunday.
“Both Ascot and New York are possibilities for her, so we will have to see where we go,” said Slack after jockey Chris Hayes had brought the filly home in the 1,400m race.
“I’m very pleased for Mary Slack — it is the biggest winner she has had in Ireland or England,” he added.
Hayes commented: “I gave her a terrible ride, but I had a willing partner.
“It was a funny race and more of a three-and-a-half furlong sprint and she is tough and genuine.”
Cape Town-based Form Bloodstock have made numerous successful purchases for Slack overseas. They bought Diamond Fields for €55,000 at the 2014 Goffs Yearling Sale.
A busy holiday period for racing fans kicks off with an eight-race programme at the Vaal on Thursday. Trainer Lucky Houdalakis will be hoping his runner Cockade can pick up the winning thread in the fifth race.
Houdalakis makes no secret of the fact the gelding has had his issues, but he has ability and could beat home Brian Wiid’s three-year-old Hieronymous.
Wiid is enjoying a purple patch with his small stable having sent out seven winners in the past two months.
He saddled another of his three-year-olds, Lee’s Pick, to run second at odds of 40-1 in the recent Derby Trial. Jockey Deon Sampson, successful on Hashtag Strat at Thursday’s course on Tuesday, knows Hieronymous well and will get the best out of his mount.
Another tough rival for Cockade could be Geoff Woodruff’s Starrett City, who will have title-chasing Gavin Lerena in the saddle.
Champion trainer Sean Tarry rarely leaves a Highveld meeting empty-handed and his filly, Inaninstant, has much appeal in the sixth race.
The conditions of this event suggest jockey Carl Hewitson can expect a challenge from the Tyrone Zackey inmate Pennington Sands.
Another winning chance for Tarry at the meeting is his threeyear-old, Hamaan, who finished third behind Pagoda and Lee’s Pick in the recent Derby Trial. He gets the vote to capture the seventh race ahead of Porcupine Creek, Yer-Maan and Stunned.
Vaal trainer Steve Moffatt scored with Tom Fool at his home track on Tuesday and his runner Rebuked could spring a surprise in the final leg of the Pick 6. A swinger coupling his runner with the ultraconsistent Don Christo may be the best way to bet on the race.