Hard Day’s Night pays off for Ramsden

three past the post all had nice draws of 5, 2 and 6. Budapest, winning for the second time in his fifth career start, became an instant millionaire, earning a cheque of R1,25 million. He was bred by Witzenberg Stud.

Hard Day’s Night

Anton Marcus had earlier ridden a superb race to win the Gr 2 R400,000 Selangor Cup over 1 600m on the Joey Ramsden-trained Warm White Night colt Hard Day’s Night. He plotted a clever course from a wide draw down the back straight which allowed him to take the lead at the turn without having exerted too much energy.

In the straight the bay bravely kept himself in front despite a blanket of closing horses on his outside. He got to the line 0,2 lengths clear of the flying Vaughan Marshall-trained Victorious Jay with the Crawford-trained Nassa a close-up third and the next two Illuminator and Purple Mountain were 0,7 and 1,1 lengths behind the winner in the thrilling finish.

The favourite Muwaary was well placed to strike at the top of the straight but found nothing and finished unplaced.

Hard Day’s Night, bred by Monarch Bloodstock, is likely to be a strong contender for the Gr 1 Investec Cape Derby.

Gothic

The Listed R150,000 Lanzerac le General Kenilworth Cup over 3 200m was marked by a slow pace and in the end those coming from behind were proved to have misjudged it as it was soon clear they were going to have no chance of catching the pair who had stolen a march, the six-year-old Silvano gelding Gothic and Parachute Man.

In a thrilling finish Aldo Domeyer, who had earlier looped them when deciding the pace was too slow, managed to get Gothic’s nose down on the line. The 33-10 favourite Ovidio was running on but it was too late and had to settle for third.

This was only the third career win for the perennial bridesmaid Gothic, who finished runner up to Wylie Hall in the Gr 1 SA Derby as a three-yearold, and his first for over two years.