Sublime Lady to try feature races
SUBLIME Lady is to try feature company again despite drifting the width of the course after Grant van Niekerk sent her to the front two furlongs from home in the mile handicap at Kenilworth on Saturday.
Candice Robinson said: “In the Victress she was almost put over the fence and in the Jamaica last time she was caught three wide. We will keep her here in the winter and have a go at one of the smaller fillies features.”
Whose That Girl
Mike Bass was on course but his hopes of initiating a double with Whose That Girl in the juvenile fillies were dashed when the 5-10 hotpot trailed in seventh behind Aldo Domeyer on the Darryll Hodgson-trained Chill Baby Chill.
“Maybe she was feeling her shins,” reported a disappointed Grant Van Niekerk. “That wasn’t her run at all.”
Punters were already reeling from Gray Frost in the first.
The Brett Crawford newcomer was backed from 14-1 to 4-1 but finished with only one behind him, 14 lengths off the Joey Ramsden odds-on Attenborough under Donovan Dillon.
Crawford said: “He is a nice horse and, while I wouldn’t say I expected him to trot up, I thought he would finish in the first four. Maybe something will show up.”
Followers of the stable had compensation when Crawford and Corne Orffer fired off a quick-fire treble with Tide Is Turning, Silver Snaffles and Mr Bond who all started favourite.
Crawford commented straightfaced: “For two and a half years I’ve been telling Corne that when he wants to go he must first count to ten and then go. At last he he’s got it - up until now I think he was only counting to five!”
Louise Currie
The first and third of the stable’s winners were led in by Mark and Louise Currie who were in Cape Town to take part in the Cape Cycle Tour.
The Investec executive said it was ten years since he had last ridden in the famous cycle race so he would probably be in need of the run!
But the Philippi partnership suffered another reverse when odds-on Juba never got into it behind the Paul Reeves 20-1 shot Fifty Other Shades in the 1 000m maiden.
The stipes ordered a veterinary report but nothing showed up.
However Orffer reported: “She got a bit above herself and became very sweaty.”
The winner was the second Gareth Wright had ridden from his last seven mounts and he is optimistic that this change of fortune will enable him to leave behind a freak and unwelcome spell on the sidelines.
He said: “Unknown to me I fractured a finger, I think when I was holding a horse, and a fortnight later it started to hurt. When I had it looked at, the doctor told me that it was an old injury that had broken again and I had to stay off for six weeks.”
The 16-runner finale turned into one of starter Fred Brosman’s nightmares with one horse (Mr Piscato) breaking through the pens and galloping back to the stables.
Then, when the other 15 were reloaded, Mini Loushe also burst out.
The increasingly fractious field was eventually off nine minutes late.
But for those who backed Mega Secret from 5-1 to 28-10 the agony came at the business end with Craig du Plooy inflicting a last gasp defeat on Captain Splendid.
Chris Snaith, though, was impressed, saying: “Craig does all the work but rarely gets a good ride. When he does he produces the goods.”