Jack Milner
In 1963 Nat King Cole had a hit with a song called “Crazy, Lazy, Hazy Days Of Summer” and on Saturday at Turffontein that song really came to life.
The opening line is “Bring on those crazy, lazy, hazy days of Summer” and a three-year-old filly named Hazy Dazy did just that. She was cheered home by the racing crowd as she thwarted the challenges of her nine rivals to capture the Grade 1 Wilgerbosdrift SA Fillies Classic. That puts her one race away of becoming the first Wilgerbosdrift SA Triple Tiara winner since Rain In Holland in 2022.
Trained by Corne Spies, the daughter of Act Of War won the Wilgerbosdrift Gauteng Fillies Guineas last month and victory in the Grade 2 Wilgerbosdrift SA Oaks over 2450m on Saturday 4 April will see her claim the R1-million bonus for winning the Triple Tiara.
Hazy Dazy, who went off as the 1-1 favourite, won the race by one length from Eastern Cape raider Golden Palm (9-2) trained by Alan Greeff and ridden by Craig Zackey. Third place went to Fanie Bronkhorst’s charge Scarlett Heart (66-1) ridden by Muzi Yeni, with Mike Azzie-trained Daisy Jones (40-1) ridden by Kabelo Matsunyane in fourth.
There was a touch of magic about the victory because the Spies yard is not one of the major training establishments in the country, the filly cost just R37,500 and she was ridden by apprentice Trent Mayhew.
Full credit has to go to the whole team but special mention needs to be made of the exceptional ride that crowned off the victory.
Sensing the slow pace, Mayhew opted to take Hazy Dazy off to the front and turning for home he allowed her to increase her lead. However, with 400m to go she was passed by a couple of runners which caused commentator Nico Kritsiotis to say “Hazy Dazy is in trouble”.
A groan came up from the on-course crowd because this filly was seen by many as the best banker on the card and it suddenly looked as if she would be fighting it out to run a place.
But Mayhew had an ace or two up his sleeve and left his mount with some juice in the tank. She fought back gamely and went on to win with authority in the end.
It was a five-star performance and justified the faith Spies and her connections had in him.
He was not overawed by the occasion and it allowed him to notch up his first Grade 1 victory.
Commenting about the part of the race when a couple of horses passed him, Mayhew responded: “I wasn’t too worried, only when Muzi came next to me because I thought he had a lot more in the tank. But he was bluffing.
“She won a good race.”
Speaking about Leg 3 he added: “I think she will see out the 2450m. She will be taking on the same sort of field and I feel she can beat them again.”
The other two Grade 1 races on the card – the HKJC World Pool SA Classic and the Wilgerbosdrift HF Oppenheimer Horse Chestnut Stakes over 1600m – belonged to trainer Sean Tarry, but they were won in a very different manner.
The SA Classic went the way of Gauteng Guineas runner-up Grand Occasion (11-2) ridden by Craig Zackey, who produced a powerful finish to hold off Candice and Tammy Dawson-trained Trust (9-2) and Serino Moodley by a short head.
Commenting on the close finished Zackey joked: “I though it was a dead heat, or me.”
The Horse Chestnut was won by three-year-old Tin Pan Alley (4-1) with Keagan de Melo up. He took the lead some 400m from home and when he went clear, he never looked like being caught. He held off See It Again (3-1) by 3.75 lengths with Texas Red (50-1) a head further back in fourth.
Disappointment of the race was The Real Prince, who went off at 33-20, but was always at the back of the field and never ran on at all.
The going was a bit sticky and perhaps that accounted for his failure. The Stipendiary Stewards did note that he spread a show in running.
Tarry came away with four feature-race winners on the day as he also captured the Listed Wilgerbosdrift Ruffian Stakes with Secretary Bird and the Wilgerbosdrift Acacia Stakes with care Forgot.
In both cases he also trained the second placed runners, Griselda and Warning Sound respectively.
Speaking about the achievement Tarry said: “At the end of the day this is what we aim for. We try and pull it off, but it doesn’t come this way too often and when it comes this way you have to savour the moment, to appreciate it, because it has been months of work that has now come to fruition.”