Varallo finally finds his form
AFTER showing potential early in his career, Varallo was effectively an under achiever after his maiden win but gelding finally brought out the best of him at Greyville yesterday.
This was his second run after gelding and also his second for Dennis Bosch after the Charles Laird handed in his trainer’s brief and instead of turning it up under pressure, Varallo finally went on with his effort under Gunter Wrogemann to get the better of Flying Free and more fancied stable companion Founding Father.
Delpech
In a small field, Anthony Delpech went forward on Founding Father and looked to have made the right decision in front turning for home as Flying Free, hot on his heels, battling to go with him. However, Varallo finished with a wet sail on their outside and Flying Free, at one stage looking to disappear out of the back door, found another gear and came hard at the winner but too late to catch him.
With that run under his girth and gelding, Varallo may finally realise his potential while Flying Free is one for the notebook and should not be long in finding the winner’s enclosure. Shane Humby, former assistant to Herman Brown Snr, and long-time resident of Cape Town, has not had the best of luck since returning to KZN and Ashburton in particular. His string has been dogged by a recurring virus but hopefully things have turned for the good as Socrates ran out an easy winner of his maiden, beating strongly fancied favourite Sand Path. It proved no race, Socrates coming home by five with Sand Path also well clear of the chasing pack.
Humby’s horses are starting to find form and the stable could pay to follow.
Socrates was the first of an Anton Marcus four-timer, the third leg being a copybook ride on Champenois for Dennis Drier and the controversial Mayfair Speculators outfit of disgraced Steinhoff boss, Markus Jooste.
Most are in the dark on how Jooste’s vast racing empire is being disbanded, and the National Horseracing Authority is tight lipped, but the Mayfair colours are still in evidence much to pubic chagrin.
But thoroughbred racehorses cannot be left idle in their stables, no matter the shenanigans of their owners, and it is up to their trainers to keep them at their peak until the dust has settled.
Champenoise
Champenoise, a half-sister to the smart Pierre Jourdan, showed enough early in her career for Dennis Drier to include her in his Cape summer raiding string but in her first start she bumped the crack filly Snowdance and ran well below form.
It was a better effort next time out but back home yesterday she showed her best form to grind down long-time leader Call Me Winter who had dropped from a rating high of 102 to 75 yesterday and looks competitive once again off her lower mark.
Toltec took the step up in class into his stride in the Track & Ball Shelley Beach Handicap bursting through late to snatch victory in a blanket finish.
One could have thrown a blanket over the first six home but Tristan Godden produced Lezeanne Forbes’s gelding with a perfectly timed finish to snatch victory from Border Control.