Veale in blazing form
SEAN VEALE was in devastating form on the Hollywoodbets Greyville poly yesterday and rode four winners in the eight race meeting.
When Veale won the third on Blazing Light, he was on a spree as it was already number three.
In the next race Keagen de Melo switched outward on pacemaker Syx Hotfix, opening the door, and when Veale took the lead on Straight Up it looked like four.
However, De Melo is not on top of the national jockeys log for nothing and had left something in the tank.
Six Hotfix
The Hollywood Syndicate-owned Alyson Wright-trained four-year-old Flower Alley gelding Six Hotfix fought back to deny the Duncan Howellstrained Straight Up for the second time in succession, despite being 1kg worse off for a 0,90 length beating.
This time he got up by 0,30 lengths. However, Howells and Veale did make amends in race seven when winning on the four-year-old Purple Operator, ironically owned by Hollywood.
Howells
The four-year-old Captain Of All gelding made it a double for Hollywood, a double for Howells and a four-timer for Veale.
He dived down the inside from a handy position in the small field MR 67 Handicap over 1200m and won cosily from Bless Me Fred.
Howells and Veale had earlier combined to win race two, a maiden over 1400m, with the three-year-old Crusade filly Mission Rocks.
Veale landed a chance ride on that one, after Muzi Yeni had been booked off after the first, and he produced a storming finish on the outside from Mission Rocks to win by 0,80 lengths from the favourite Stealth Attack.
Blazing Silk, a four-year-old Refeef gelding, clinched Veale his hat-trick and Dennis Drier a double when winning the third race, a Maiden over 1800m, at the 17th time of asking.
L'ultimo, a hard-knocking threeyear-old The United States gelding trained by Drier and ridden by Veale, had got the meeting rolling in a
Maiden over 1400m.
He overcame the widest draw of all in the eight horse field to claim an easy lead and in the straight, with the favourite Captain Corrupt having been fractious at the start and making no inroads, he went further and further clear to win by 5,80 lengths from outsider Zabadak.
Veale and Howells also went close in race five over 1400m with the six-yearold Visonaire mare Birdwatcher, who produced a strong run from off the pace, but it was too late to catch the Michael Roberts-trained Eightfold Path mare Hatta, ridden by 2,5kg claimer Siphesihle Hlengwa.
William Rufus
The sixth race saw Keagan de Melo scoring a double on the Dean Kannemeyer-trained William Rufus, who provided yet another winner for the flying William Longsword.
William Rufus brought Cape Town form and led from start to finish in the 1400m contest to win by 1,20 lengths from Gentleman's Way.
The DK Racing syndicate are the owners of William Rufus and a number of them were on course to shout the three-year-old gelding home.
Bruce Armstrong, a third generation member of a staunch KZN racing family, was the syndicate spokesman in the post race interview.
The last race over 1000m saw a blanket finish but the pacemaker Iron Bark, a Gareth van Zyl-trained fouryear-old Flower Alley gelding , held on under Athandiwe Mgudlwa to record his fifth career win.