Charity Mile treble for Johan

Jack Milner

It may not have been two-time winner Bingwa this time, but trainer Johan Janse van Vuuren won his third Allied Steelrode Onamission Charity Mile at Turffontein on Saturday.

This time it was Puerto Manzano who did the deed as he and Gavin Lerena came hurtling down the outside of the track to beat Cousin Casey by 0.70 lengths with Bless My Stars in third and Winchester Mansion fourth.

In fact, just 1.65 lengths separated the first six past the post.

Each of the 16 runners represented a charity and Puerto Manzano’s win netted R100,000 for the South African Riding For The Disabled Association (SARDA).

Cousin Casey’s outstanding Highveld debut won Thusanani Children’s Foundation a whopping R75,000 for his runner-up finish. Bless My Stars represented Jicama 89, which saw them awarded R50,000, and the TAG Foundation claimed the fourth-placed bonus of R35,000.

All the remaining charities represented received R20,000.

With Puerto Manzano being aimed at the Betway Summer Cup and the distance seeming a touch short for him, he drifted out to 20-1 at the start but the way the race panned out, it played right into the hands of Gavin Lerena. 

Dave The King set a decent pace and once they turned for home burst some six lengths clear of the field. Unfortunately for the front runners, a storm was looming on the horizon and a powerful headwind greeted the players as they turned for home.

"That worked out perfectly for me," said Lerena who was able to charge home from off the pace.

Janse van Vuuren was obviously delighted with his charge’s performance. “There was a lot of speed in the race which helped us but I feel Puerto Manzano is a better horse than he was last year.”

Asked whether the Argentinian-bred gelding would have another run before his Summer Cup title defence, Janse van Vuuren replied: “No, it’s straight into the Summer Cup!”

Cousin Casey ran a cracker in second and interestingly, this Vercingetorix colt, now trained by Sean Tarry, went off as the favourite at 11-2. 

It was a stampede for the minor placing and Bless My Stars, as honest as ever, performed superbly to touch off Hollywoodbets Durban July winner Winchester Mansion with two-time winner Bingwa in fifth, a short head in front of an unlucky Melech not to finish in the top four and he was forced to switch out at a crucial stage of the race.

The highlight of the meeting was the tussle between three-year-olds Main Defender and Sandringham Summit – and what a race it turned out to be. The two burst clear at the 400m pole in the Betway Graham Beck Stakes over 1400m and fought it out right down to the wire at which point Tony Peter-trained Main Defender got the win by a nose.

He was receiving 1kg from Sandringham Summit and at the end of the day that proved costly.

Kabelo Matsunyane rode Main Defender to victory while Calvin Habib was aboard Sandringham Summit.

Sandringham Summit looked as if he would hold off his opponent but Habib said that as they came in line with the toteboard he out his ears back and lost concentration for a moment.

What is certain is that we will be seeing a lot more exciting finishes from these two three-year-olds.

The HSH Princess Charlene Starling Stakes for three-year-old fillies was also a fight between the two top rated fillies and it was Egyptian Mau (4-1), trained by Lucky Houdalakis and ridden by Craig Zackey, who got the better of Mike de Kock-trained 9-10 favourite White Pearl by 0.40 lengths.