‘Appies’ make their mark at Kenilworth

TARENTAAL SCORES AFTER EIGHT MONTHS OUT OF THE SADDLE

Mbhele gets first winner as a full jockey.

It was a day for apprentices past and present to shine at Kenilworth on Saturday. Both Racing Express and ComputaForm had made Skidoo in the headlining MR 96 Handicap over 1000m their value bet and 2.5kg-claimer Leon Tarentaal made no mistake on his return from eight months on the sidelines.

Quite a few punters took heed, as Paul Reeves’ gelding eventually went off as a R3.60 tote favourite.

With a mere 52kg the naturally speedy sort was up with the pace from the jump and held off the challenge of perennial bridesmaid Dragon Power to score by 0.50 lengths

“I was always in the lead. And I knew he would quicken again. I was very confident coming into the race,” said Tarentaal, whose enforced absence was due to a broken fibula following a mishap at the track last June.

The final event was a FM 78 Handicap over a rarely raced 1100m and here we saw recently qualified Sandile Mbhele score his first win as a fully-fledged jockey after coming out of his apprenticeship in January.

This soft-spoken youngster had already recorded a brace of seconds for Candice Bass-Robinson, but finally broke his duck on Fours A Crowd for Glen Kotzen.

This mare has been in good form lately and despite shifting in late under pressure, had enough in the tank to win an open contest by a neck at 7-1.

“She quickened after hitting a bit of a flat spot. She would have won easier if she didn’t shift to the inside. I won’t be stopping here,” commented a delighted Mbhele after his milestone win.

Racing Express top bet Long Reign (9-10) made no mistake. But Richard Fourie’s mount only scored by a head after a protracted head-to-head duel with market rival In Auro (11-10) under Anton Marcus in Race 4, a 2500m Maiden Plate.

And Fourie came up with the quip of the day in the post race interview.

“Anton’s not an easy guy to get past. Hopefully when I am his age I can still ride like that,” was his smiling post race contribution.