Danie Toerien
Jockey Corne Orffer yesterday at Fairview claimed victory in the Listed World Sports Betting East Cape Derby over 2 400m aboard Chollima with a masterful ride, coming from just about stone last to win by 0.25-lengths.
Trained by Glen Kotzen (pictured above) , Chollima had to do it the hard way as he jumped from the widest gate.
“We got draw 16 and there’s not too much you can do from there, especially jumping on the turn,” said Orffer after the race.
“Going down to the start, I made the decision to drop him out because he was a bit fresh and a bit keen going down.
“I thought bouncing him out would be the wrong thing to do, so I elected to get him out quietly and just let him lob along at the end,” said Orffer, explaining his backmarking tactic.
“I just put all my faith in him because his last run was incredible. He ran third behind highly rated horses. We came in with a lot of confidence that he would run a good race.
“If we had drawn maybe one to five, we would have made him a certainty.
“But like I said, I put my trust in him and he pulled me through nicely.
“When we got into the straight, he just started picking them off one by one. I bided my time, but he shot to the front very quickly. He took me there by himself. He wanted to run, so I let him.”
By the time Chollima hit the 400m marker, he had built up a 2-length lead and from there this Pathfork gelding was never going to get caught.
“The distance is 100% for him,” said Orffer.
In the other feature event on the day, the Gavin Smith trained Ekoria scored a runaway victory by 3.25-lengths in the Listed WSB Dahlia Plate under JP v’d Merwe.
Local sprinting hero Global Drummer was not at his best, finishing sixth in a Pinnacle Stakes over 1 200m. Barzalona, trained by Candice Bass-Robinson and with Aldo Domeyer in the saddle took the honours, giving the Western Cape raiders three victories on the day after Justin Snaith scored with Open Secret in a Maiden Juvenile Plate for fillies earlier in the day.