Eros’s Girl made to sweat
EROS’S Girl (13-20) had to pull out all the stops to pip a gutsy Kumiko (11-2) in the Listed East Cape Oaks over 2 000m at Fairview yesterday.
The Justin Snaith-trained daughter of Captain Al got up close to the line to win by half a length. Bountiful Harvest (7-1) ran third ahead of Rare Stone (45-1).
Ideal Bloom got away at a brisk gallop and led the field until the 700m mark where she seemed to get tired. At that stage she was followed by Kumiko, Rare Stone and Night Fall with the favourite a couple of lengths off the pace.
With 100m to go Kumiko grimly clung to her lead, but Bernard Fayd’Herbe made a late charge on Eros’s Girl to deny Kumiko the victory.
Earlier punters predicted an easy race for Eros’s Girl, but in the end she was made to work hard for her fourth career victory.
The Pick 6 got under way on a disappointing note for punters when the 12-1 outsider Line Of Fire pipped the favourite, Plain Of Wisdom (5-2), on the line. Line Of Fire made great strides over the last 30m and Karl Zechner just managed to get the Dorrie Sham-trained along- side Plain Of Wisdom to win by a whisker.
Line Of Fire paid R10,20 for his first career win and R3,40 a place.
His unexpected win kicked-start the Pick 6 with a R11,50 dividend.
In the second leg over 1 400m the Ingrid and Markus Jooste-owned Sir Duke (2-1) recorded his fourth victory in a row when he defeated Way Clear (10-1).
Sir Duke was drawn wide, but Raymond Danielson took him to the front in no time and stayed there till the end to celebrate his ninth career victory. In his penultimate race Sir Duke defeated the highly-rated Copper Crown by 2,25 lengths.
Sir Duke has also pushed his earnings up to R516 925 at an average of R25 846.
The third leg of the Pick 6 saw thousands of Jackpot and Pick 6 tickets go down the drain when 66-1 outsider Save the last dance got up to beat Notting Hill (2-1) over 2 000m.
Save the last dance was brilliantly ridden by Lucien Africa for the Steven Janse van Rensburg yard to score his second win from six starts. He paid R47 a win and R6,70 a place.
The shock win resulted in the Pick 6 dividend shooting up from R36,80 to R1 911,50 and the live tickets reduced from 17 205 to 331,92.
The last race on the card reduced the live Pick 6 tickets dramatically when first-timer and 16-1 outsider Firing Queen got home first over 1200m in another shock result.
Favourite Al-Amadi (1310), who was way overdue for a win, could only manage third place.
In the end only 4,17 tickets survived the Pick 6 which paid R151 875,30.
Gavin Lerena and Raymond Danielson both had two winners, while Tara Laing, Gavin Smith and Steven Janse van Rensburg all celebrated a brace.