King Lerena still sits on the Grand Heritage throne
Classify could go for more feature races
Gavin Lerena and trainer Paul Peter may have been the winners of the 28-horse R750 000 Grand Heritage race on Saturday but it was Lerena’s son Ashton who took people’s breath away.
He seemed more excited for the victory than his father was.
Ashton repeatedly screamed out “Daddy won, daddy won for me!” as his father pulled up to the winner’s enclosure.
Lerena had Forest Fox placed six lengths behind Joey Piper (Mark Khan) and Vulcan (JP van der Merwe) who led down the middle. Piere Strydom and 12-1 fancy Arctica travelled solo on the outside. Lerena’s mount moved up encouragingly at the 800m but it was jockey Collen Storey who burst clear of the pack aboard 44-1 outsider Starrett City at the 400m marker.
Forest Fox got into flight mode at the 200m but had to fend off a fast finishing Classify who ran his heart out and was beaten by 0.40-lengths.
Starrett City held on for third place with Morpheus a further 2.50 lengths in fourth.
Eastern Cape raider Classify is a horse worth following in future. “When they try that hard you can’t fault them, he’s gutsy and I couldn’t be prouder,” trainer Dorrie Sham gushed. “I was thinking of taking my baby back home, but after
a performance like this I might keep him here a little longer. He could contest a couple more features in Gauteng.”
Lerena won this race on Irish Pride last year and confessed he had a hard time deciding which horse to ride.
“It’s a handicapper’s race, so you need a horse in decent form that has the finish to get you home and Forest Fox did that today.
Classify came back to challenge but he dug deep,” he said.
Racing is at Flamingo Park today and the best on the card has to be Pretty Wendy who runs in Race 1, a Maiden Plate over 1400m. This filly has finished second in three consecutive outings and will attempt to redeem herself having disappointed many when an 8-10 favourite last time.