Clean bowled in Summer Cup
Yorker leads Geoff Woodruff’s glory charge
TRAINER Geoff Woodruff dominated yesterday’s R2-million Sansui Summer Cup, one of the oldest and most prestigious events on the Gauteng racing calendar.
Not since his father-in-law, Terrance Millard, twice produced the first three finishers in the Durban July, in 1986 and 1990, can this scribe recall a trainer saddling the trifecta in one of the country’s three major events.
Woodruff must have gained immense satisfaction when Yorker, who has disappointed on occasions after looking a superstar in the making, silenced his critics with a gutsy win over stable companion Master Sabina yesterday.
Yorker, the strapping son of the deceased Jet Master, won for only the fourth time in a 10race career, but showed that the 2 000m of the Summer Cup was right up his alley by running prominently throughout.
Old-timer Smanjemanje, having his third crack at winning the race, set a sedate gallop around the turn with Royal Zulu Warrior, who won the Emperors Palace Charity Mile, in close attendance.
But the Woodruff runners — Yorker, Master Sabina, Tellina and Killlua Castle — were in full cry as the field entered the final furlong and only Royal Zulu Warrior prevented a clean sweep of the first four places.
Yorker, racing on the inside of the course, with Anton Marcus putting up half a kilogram to ride him, held on doggedly as Master Sabina, in the colours of breeder Michael De Broglio, made a determined challenge, under Robbie Fradd.
The winning margin was a neck, with Tellina, Woodruff’s personal fancy on the strength of his stamina, finishing strongly a length further back in third, and Royal Zulu Warrior shading Killua Castle for fourth.
Yorker is owned by Investec Bank’s Bernard Kantor, Steinhoff’s Markus and Ingrid Jooste, and British-based Jim Lewis, who was the owner of threetime Cheltenham Gold Cup winner, Best Mate.
After a spell in the wilderness, when Woodruff was still based at the Vaal Racecourse, and his horses were susceptible to the often polluted air of the region, the stable is back with a vengeance. After the race the stable confirmed that all four of the Summer Cup runners will contest the major events of the Cape summer season.
My advice is to keep an eye on Tellina.