Jack Milner: Malmoos demonstrated his true quality as he stormed to victory in the Grade 1 World Sports Betting SA Classic over 1800m at Turffontein on Saturday.
Now, he is just a Derby away from an immortalising victory in the WSB SA Triple Crown.
This time jockey Luke Ferraris was able to settle him in fourth place as Shah Akbar made sure of a decent enough pace. Shah Akbar tried to slip the field in the straight but was quickly reeled in by the more fancied horses.
Second Base moved in quickly with Malmoos but while the former was under pressure, Ferraris had not yet moved on the favourite. At that point Catch Twentytwo moved into third but he was always chasing.
In the final 100m Malmoos drew off to win by two lengths from Second Base, who just held off Catch Twentytwo by a neck. Flying Carpet was 0.50 lengths away in fourth.
Remarkably, Malmoos blew in the betting and was available at 5-2 at the off. Second Base found most of the support and started at 37-20 with Catch Twentytwo finding late support to go off the 22-10 bookmakers’ favourite, although Malmoos was the TAB favourite.
“He showed real class today.” said Ferraris. “He is a champion.”
Asked whether Malmoos will go the extra in WSB SA Derby and complete the WSB SA Triple Crown, Ferraris replied: “He’ll go the 2400m.”
Trainer Mike de Kock had said during the week: “If he wins the SA Classic, he’ll go for it. He would have a big chance of winning the Derby because 2450m should be no problem for him.”