Trevor Reid
On a day when jockey Louie Mxothwa won three races and Cruise Control pipped rival Cliff Top, the highlight was the performance of four-year-old filly Phedra.
By Vercingetorix, she has been good since joining trainer Sharon Kotzen, but yesterday she raised her game to a new high and smashed some quality fillies in the feature race of the day, the listed East Cape Breeders Stakes over 1200m.
With all the rain and snow about in the week, an early decision to move from the turf to the polytrack saw trainer Justin Snaith leave all his runners at home. He cannot be blamed as his runners are usually at a disadvantage on the poly.
Back to Phedra.
She has won four of her six starts on the polytrack and this was the easiest win of them all.
Sitting in a good position in third she let the speedsters Civil Rights and Tipsy Tina cut each other’s throats (figuratively speaking) and pounced 300m from home and quickly built up a good lead.
Trainer Gavin Smith's star filly Ekoria made late progress to finish second and the resurging Chere For Me ran third.
Mxothwa had a good day with his win aboard Phedra and he was also aboard Bush Tracker in Race 5 and Cruise Control in Race 6.
His ride aboard Cruise Control was particularly good as he battled it out with rival Richard Fourie on Cliff Top and he always seemed to hold a slight advantage being on the outer of the track.
Cliff Top thrashed Cruise Control by 4.90 lengths the last time they met. Racegoers can look forward to many more classic tussles between the two as both are only three years old.
It was a day that saw bookmakers get the better of punters with only one tote favourite (Phedra) winning.
Space Explorer in Race 3 was the shock result in the Pick 6 that saw an eventual dividend of R27,407.20 with El Romiachi winning the last race.
This was a start-to-finish ride by Gabriel Pieterse who is a fast improving jockey.
We are back on the Fairview polytrack on Monday.