HARLEM SHAKES THEM UP AT KENILWORTH

Wins final fling stakes

After the rain that fell in Cape Town in the run-up to Saturday’s meeting at Kenilworth punters probably expected bigger upsets.

But the results pretty much behaved themselves – with the exception of the feature race and the fact that some well-fancied runners clearly did not like the soft track.

The Glen Puller-trained Harlem Shake provided the surprise in Race 7, the Final Fling Stakes (Grade 3) over 1800m.

Apprentice Heavelon van der Hoven has horses that run well for him and Harlem Shake is one of them (Illuminator being another).

Being on the rail up the straight was the popular place to be and the only way Harlem Shake was going to get a run there was to make the pace. Overcoming a very deep draw, Van der Hoven took the lead early and made nearly all the running to win a brave race.

The Warm White Night three-year-old did seem to be passed in the home straight but came back well to see off Icy Fire, who got up for second ahead of Sublime Lady and Fear Not.

The 1800m of this race brought out the best in Harlem Shake and she is probably going to win more races.

The Justin Snaith yard won this race last year with Cat And The Moon and she contested it again, but it was her stable companion Acrostar that was heavily backed sent out as the favourite. Neither horse looked like having a winning chance at any stage.

On Friday at Fairview, the combination of trainer Justin Snaith and rider Richard Fourie had a good meeting, winning three races – with Written In Gold, Wonder Worker and Villa Del Largo.

The form trainer was upstaged in the feature race of the day, however, when Harvard Crimson (Fourie) and Cup Cake (Callan Murray) had to settle for second and third place behind Purely Atomic in the Listed East Cape Paddock Stakes over 1600m.

Purely Atomic won under Charles Ndlovu for trainer Alan Greeff.

This Australian-bred filly has overcome a habit of running second and has won well twice in her last three starts.

There were, surprisingly, no feature races at Scottsville but there was a notable performance from Elusivenchant-ment in winning Race 5, a Pinnacle Stakes over 1200m. The Elusive Fort filly drew right away to win easily, indicating she is on the way up.

Two other horses that could have more wins in them are Sylvester The Cat and Arctica who fought out a tight finish in Race 6 at Scottsville.