Jack Milner: The two R1-million features on Saturday’s Kenilworth card both produced such close results it was left to the judge to pick out the winners.
The interesting about them was the declared winner was the runner who looked beaten a stride or two before the post which proves why many owners are only too pleased to have Weichong Marwing and Piere Strydom on their horses.
The outcome of the Grade 1 Betting World Cape Flying Championship went the way of three-year-old filly Alboran Sea. The Mike Kock-trained runner hit the front some 400m out and went clear, looking all over a winner. Suddenly Sean Cormack produced Captain of All on her outside and it looked as if he caught the filly close home345. However, Marwing – and Alboran Sea – would not be denied and she went on to claim the decision by a short head.
“There was a lot of speed in the race and Mike and I went through the race and our feelings were mutual,” said Marwing. “We wanted to give her a chance as she’s still a young filly. We know she’s got ability, and whatever happens from today she’s only going to improve.
“Things didn’t really map out the way we actually had planned. We expected Trip Tease to show all the speed. He showed speed but his speed just wasn’t good enough for this filly. I actually wanted to be a length or two behind them and I was forced to open my deck of cards and allow my filly to use her action, which she did. She put a bit of speed into the race and spread herself away from the rest of the horses.”
Speaking about the finish, Marwing added. “I thought Captain Of All may have nabbed us on the line, but I won’t argue with the judge.”
De Kock, who was back from Dubai to attend the Cape Sales, said they would probably aim her at the Grade 1 Computaform Sprint at Turffontein in April. “After that there are one or two races in Durban, including the fillies sprint at Scottsville.
“I don’t want to give her too many runs, maybe two or three. Then I’ll have to talk nicely to ‘Mother Mary’ (owner Mary Slack) to see if we can get her on a plane out of here.”
There was a school of thought that this would be De Kock’s 100th Grade 1 victory but, after an audit and recheck, it has been discovered that it was actually No 102. The 100th win came in the Allan Robertson Fillies Championship at Scottsville on 24 May last year. The winner there, ironically, was Alboran Sea.
The Non-Black Type Cape Thoroughbred Sales Stakes over 1200m produced another thriller as Brutal Force, with Strydom up, and Zambezi River, ridden by S’manga Khumalo, went to the line as one. Again the photofinish revealed Brutal Force had got it by a nose.
Strydom had a little giggle over the outcome of the race as he had asked for the ride on Zambezi River.
Brutal Force cost R4.5 million as yearling – the record price in SA until it was passed last week when a son of Dynasty went for R5.2 million.