‘Hawks’ snatch Rider Cup

THE Highveld Hawks snatched a short-head decision as they landed the New Turf Carriers Rider Cup at Scottsville yesterday. At the end of the four-legged contest, the Hawks scraped home by five points ahead of the KZN Falcons with the Cape Eagles a rather distant third.

The Falcons were seemingly cruising going into the third leg but Gavin Lerena pulled one out of the bag on outsider Sonar Active for Mike Miller and Marco van Rensburg and Lyle Hewitson, a late replacement for S’Manga Khumalo, also collecting a bag-full of points for the Hawks.

Diamond In The Sky

Diamond In The Sky was the only runner in the final leg not to have a cross behind her name denoting a chance in the Computaform but Kom Naidoo had her spot on in her first outing for the yard and Falcons rider Warren Kennedy drove her hard for an upset win with less than two lengths covering the first seven home.

It was too little too late for the Falcons as Lerena and Hewitson, along with Van Rensburg and Zackey earning enough points to scrape in by five.

Some consolation for the Falcons was that Anton Marcus finished Victor Ludorum, eight points clear of second-placed Hawks rider Gavin Lerena who had a lucrative afternoon, booting home a double.

Lerena is headed back to the UK shortly where he still has a month of his contract to run but not before he rides New Predator in next Saturday’s Mercury Sprint.

The race for title of Champion KZN Trainer is going down to the wire with the two perennial contenders Dennis Drier and Duncan Howells in a neck-and-neck tussle.

Drier is the ruling champ but after yesterday’s meeting finds himself four behind Howells who won the opener on the card with Mind Your Business and shut the door in the last with the Antonius Pius filly, Sorceress.

Mind Your Business

The money came for Mind Your Business as if the result was already known and from an opening call of 10-1, started second favourite at 3-1, but the false start resulted in some frayed nerves.

“Unfortunately, it was a false start,” said winning rider Gavin Lerena. “But she handled it well. We didn’t go very far.”

“She’s had a few niggly problems,” said Howells.

“But she’s quite a smart filly and has improved a lot since her first run.”

Paul Lafferty has had some horses with startling names in his yard, Goat and Another Goat, to name but two and Freddie Flint, who triumphant in the second, was not named after Fred of the Flintstones, but ratherBritish bloodstock agent John Kilbride.

“He’s a dead ringer for Freddie Flintoff (famous English cricketer) so we had to name a horse after him.”

Freddie Flint had the most exposed form in the race and had been up against some useful runners in his short career, so his win was not entirely unexpected although he started easy to back at 16-1.

The starter had a tough afternoon after having called a false start in the first race of the day and later The Slade playing up in the gate and going to the line sans rider Anthony Delpech. Post-race he was declared a non-runner after it was judged that the starter’s assistant did not release the gelding’s head before the gates opened.

The Slade

The Slade is never the easiest horse at the start and one can hardly lay the blame on the starter’s assistant.

Similarly, the starter was caught between a rock and a hard place at the start of the first. Innocently Naughty played up just as the gates were sprung and the runners were called back. There were a number of unhappy trainers but as chief stipendiary steward Shaun Parker pointed out it was a case of “damned if you do and damned if you don’t”.

“If you don’t call a false start and the favourite gets beaten, then there are calls for the race to be declared null and void.

“If the offender happens to run into a place then it cannot be declared a non-runner and it could quite possibly beat the favourite. Basically, the starter does not know what is going to happen at the end of the race.

“He has to make a split-second decision.” RIAAN van Reenen and Carl Burger have long believed in getting their horses as fit as they possibly can and now the partners have a new weapon in their armoury, one that was almost totally denied to them previously.

“You used to be only allowed to gallop Kenilworth,” Van Reenen explained.

“It was a bad system and people had to cheat it to survive. Now, though, the smaller trainers are given a chance because they allow you gallops in proportion to the number of runners you have.”

The result was two juvenile winners for the stable at Kenilworth on Saturday and, almost unheard of this season even among the bigger Cape Town yards, the double was achieved with newcomers. They were both long shots, Rebels Spirit coming home at 36-1 and Midnight Moonlight scoring at 25-1. “Both horses had come here twice to gallop and so they were ready,” said Van Reenen.

“Under the old system they would have needed it badly.” Midnight Moonight is the first winner to carry the colours of Fred Green who has an interest in Marinaresco.

Green Lavender Ridge

feature horses at

Green, semi-retired after selling his health care business two years ago, has been owning horses since 2013 when he became involved in racing through his Hammie’s Rugby Club friendship with Bryn Ressell and Marsh Shirtliff. “The first horses I had weren’t that good and so they said they would give me a share in a decent one,” said the tall Green, explaining how he ended up with a tenth of a July winner.

“I now have shares in five horses and winning with one in my own colours was quite an occasion.” So too was it for the Van Reenen-Burger association because they completed the first treble of their partnership when Rocketeer, despite drifting from 3-1 to 7-1, landed the Tabonline.co.za Handicap. All three winners were ridden by Craig Bantam who missed the previous three meetings after being laid low by ‘flu and bronchitis. The 21-year-old has now ridden 27 winners.

It was an afternoon of shock results with Ossie Noach adding to the party by coming home at 66-1 on the Adam Marcustrained Lavender Ridge in the last, much to the delight of the bookmakers, particularly those on course who had to operate in a pneumonia-inducing Antarctic wind tunnel all afternoon.

But the horse who really made their day was their old friend Cossack Guard in the 1 400m maiden.

They could hardly believe it when punters went for him yet again - despite seven consecutive seconds - but those who backed Corne Orffer’s mount were convinced that Dean Kannemeyer had solved the problem by fitting blinkers and the 12-10 shot went off as if the hounds of hell were snapping at his heels.

But he was a spent force inside the final furlong and you could hear the cheers from the layers when he managed only sixth behind MJ Byleveld on Querari’s Secret, the only twoyear-old in the field and also fitted with first time blinkers – on the advice of Vaughan Marshall’s assistant Adele Alsop.

Justin Snaith was on the mark with Cigar Boy (Jonathan: “He was a 100 handicap horse at one time and he has come all the way down to 66”) and Red Ginger while the Glen Kotzentrained South Side was the most impressive winner of the day when galloping the opposition off their feet under Richard Fourie in the conditions plate.