Elusive Silva seals place in the July
AFRICAN NIGHT SKY ALSO IMPRESSES IN DEFEAT Inquiry after Botha takes a tumble.
Elusive Silva surely booked his ticket for the Vodacom Durban July after an impressive victory from well off the pace in the Grade 2 World Sports Betting 1900 at Greyville on Saturday.
The winner was unplaced when going off as favourite in this race a year ago, but had since suffered a tendon injury, and was far easier to back at 9-1 this time.
He entered the straight near the rear after jumping from the worst draw, but halfway up the lane had moved into contention under some expert guidance from Bernard Fayd’Herbe wider out as the handy horses Kampala Campari and Crowd Pleaser fell away.
His jockey had things under control after that, and although weak tote favourite Dark Moon Rising ran on strongly, the winning margin of 0.5-lengths flatters the runner up somewhat.
Original favourite Pack Leader had been scratched due to colic close to race time.
Supporting feature was the Listed East Coast Cup for females over 2000m, and Ngaga showed her last run was all wrong with a 1.50-length win under a clever tactical ride from Richard Fourie.
Always close to the pace in a slow run affair, renowned front running rider Fourie sat handy and made his move coming off the false rail. Those tried and tested Greyville tactics worked a treat again, and he never looked like losing thereafter on the marginal 61-20 favourite.
There was a fair amount of scrimmaging further back, and whether this form will hold up over time could be questionable.
This Australian-bred Fastnet Rock filly is a July entry, and this first Stakes win will have certainly enhanced her chances of making the final field.
However yesterday trainer Andre Nel indicated he was undecided about her next mission.
Race 7 was a far stronger than normal Pinnacle Plate, and here a lot of people’s fancy for the July, African Night Sky gave his fans plenty to be optimistic about despite being defeated by well weighted stable mate Star Express on his KZN seasonal debut.
Grant van Niekerk kept the 18-10 favourite in the rear and it seemed Star Express would score comfortably when the Grade 2 winning mare swept into the lead 200m out.
However African Night Sky quickened like a good horse should late on, and was only a long head adrift at the line, making it a 1-2 for the Snaith yard.
Of course under the conditions of a Pinnacle Plate African Night Sky’s merit rating cannot be raised for placing, despite running far closer to the winner than he ‘should’ have at the weights.
Jonathan Snaith confirmed post-race that both the winner and runner up would be aimed at the July.
The race was marred late on as Piet Botha took a heavy tumble off Steel Rose in the closing stages. KZN chief stipe Shaun Parker confirmed later an inquiry would be opened into this incident.
Veteran rider Botha was taken to hospital for observation and when contacted yesterday said he had been concussed, but nothing was broken.