Two 6-figure Pick 6 payouts
4KG CLAIMER BANTAM SPRINGS A 25-1 SURPRISE IN KENILWORTH TOPLINER Snaith wins two races at both Kenilworth and Fairview.
Afew shrewd Pick 6 players enjoyed a bonanza weekend when carryovers boosted the pools at Kenilworth and Fairview past the R1-million mark.
At Kenilworth on Saturday only the last two favourites obliged and three double-digit winners resulted in there being only 2.26 winning tickets when final leg was run. The Pick 6 paid R489,741.
Biggest upset of the meeting came in Race 5, the MR 87 topliner over 1200m, when rested Cuban Emerald took full advantage of apprentice Craig Bantam’s 4kg allowance to beat Winter Trade by 0.75 lengths.
They both drifted to 25-1 and the third spot was filled by Boldly Respectable, a 10-1 shot, with another 25-1 outsider Albarakah in fourth for a Quartet dividend of R31,302. The even-money favourite, three-year-old Lord Balmoral, was a disappointing sixth after showing pace behind leader Boldly Respectable.
Cuban Emerald was completely outpaced in the early stages but burst out the pack in the final 50m to score his third career win going away by 0.75 lengths.
Justin Snaith, commenting on his decision to use a 4kg claimer, said: “I’d been beaten twice by Bantam - (Lord Balmoral’s trainer) Vaughan Marshall had used him a couple of times in sprints - and I thought, ‘Clever Vaughan’.
“Cuban Emerald was coming back from a bit of a break and he doesn’t take much of a ride so he was the perfect type of horse to get the weight off and give him more of a chance.
“Especially with so many nice young horses in this race - they had to give us weight, which makes it hard for them.”
It was Bantam’s seventh career win and Snaith’s second at the meeting. He booked jockey Richard Fourie for Captain Splendid and they duly obliged in Race 2.
Snaith and Fourie also won the main race at Fairview on Friday, the Jockey Club Stakes over 2000m. The trainer had three runners and his favourite Acrostar beat 7-1 stablemate Harvard Crimson by a short head. Third place went to Alan Greefftrained Kumiko with Snaith’s Cat And The Moon fourth.
Acrostar was one of three Pick 6 favourites to oblige at the meeting but upsets in the other three legs resulted in the R1,046,606 net pool being shared among the holders of 2.46 tickets. The dividend was R425,451.
Fourie and Snaith also won with 16-10 shot Forest Lawn in the first leg of the Pick 6 and the other winning favourite was Scent (33-10) in the final leg.
Biggest upset came courtesy of Duncan McKenzie-trained, Craig du Plooy-ridden 40-1 outsider The Cat, who beat his better-fancied stablemate Stratocruiser (13-2) in Race 5.