Jack Milner
Puerto Manzano showed plenty of courage as he fought on gamely to win the R2.5-million Betway Summer Cup over 2000m at Turffontein on Saturday.
Ridden by Keagan de Melo, the Johan Janse van Vuuren-trained Argentinian-bred five-year-old gelding fought out a duel with Safe Passage but kept on gamely to beat his rival by 0.50 lengths. Another 0.90 lengths back in third place was Aragosta with the old man of the race, Divine Odyssey, showing he had lost none of his old spark, only a head further back in fourth.
Puerto Manzano paid R5.90 for a win and R1.90 for a place.
The race provided all of jockey, trainer and owner Laurence Wernars with their first victory in this prestigious race.
Puerto Manzano had been trading around 10-1 for most of the week but a late flood of money saw him shorten into 11-2 by the off. As a result, the two early favourites, Mike de Kock-trained Sparkling Water and Safe Passage, drifted to go off at 3-1 and 5-1 respectively.
Puerto Manzano got a slight bump as the horses came out the starting stalls and ended up third last while Light Of The Moon led the field in the early stages. Victory Moon Stakes winner Litigation sat just off her with Safe Passage and Sparkling Water racing handily in third and fourth.
As they came for home Litigation hit the front and moved a couple of lengths clear as Sparkling Water attempted to move up along his inside with Safe Passage wider out. All the while De Melo and Puerto Manzano were quickly closing the gap towards the inside.
Sparkling Water soon came under pressure but Puerto Manzano and Safe Passage took off together and were left to fight out the finish. Aragosta and Divine Odyssey both stayed on well for the minor places.
De Melo has been having a superb season and this victory has added another string to his bow of victories. "I got a little bump out the gates and I was a bit further back than I wanted to be," said De Melo, chatting about how the race panned out.
"I thought they went a nice enough pace for him to quicken and he pretty much put the race to bed halfway up the straight..
"It's a win full of merit from the horse, he was very gutsy and I'm just really grateful to be aboard him today."
Van Vuuren had four horses in the race and two of them ran into the money. Speaking about Puerto Manzano a delighted trainer said: "We were in two minds after the Charity Mile whether we were going to go for this race. We looked at the field and it didn't look like there was a whole lot of speed in it and I said to Laurence 'this horse is maturing and his going to get better over further'.
"At one stage he didn't quite get a 2000 but we made up our minds then that we were going to run and luckily for us we pulled a nice draw, we got a nice position on the fence and Keagan rode a nice patient race.
"All credit must go to the horse, the rider and my staff. I just come to work in the morning and make sure everything goes according to plan."
As far as favourite Sparkling Water was concerned, the veterinary surgeon examined her and reported she was not striding out right front.