Witchcraft shows her magic

SCOTTSVILLE is very much a “horses for courses” type of a course and those who adhered to this proposition would have reaped the dividends when Witchcraft romped home in the Grade 3 Track And Ball Oaks over 2400m at Scottsville on Saturday.

The chestnut daughter of Kahal stood imperiously at the start with ears pricked and looked as if she owned the place.

Sean Tarry’s Summerveld assistant trainer Lorenzo Kariem said he had felt her confidence when saddling and said: “She knew what she was here for today.”

In fact, Witchcraft’s last win was in a 1900m event at Greyville just a week after she had won the Track And Ball Oaks two years ago. So, she fulfils that other belief about horses running well at a particular time of the year.

Her last two runs, on the Highveld in March and April, had been way below par so she started at generous odds of 16/1 on Saturday.

Champion Jockey elect Lyle Hewitson kept her wide from the jump until she found the lead and moved in at the first turn. She set a comfortable pace down the back straight.

Hewitson stepped on the gas around the final turn and they were never going to catch her. She passed the line 3,75 lengths clear of Meryl with one the Vodacom Durban July hopeful Flichity By Farr half-a length further back in third.

It was one of the rides of the season from a jockey who just gets better and better and who thoroughly deserves to be crowned National Champion as an apprentice who is in just his third year of professional race-riding.

Royal Utopia and Sunshine Silk earned the fourth and fifth place cheques. Girl On The Run, another July entry, could only finish sixth. Her chances of making the VDJ final field are gone and Flichity By Farr also probably did not do enough.