Danie Toerien
Saturday’s race meeting at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth exceeded the expectations of many, with the four main events producing fantastic equine action and some rather surprising results.
While the raiders from the Highveld, KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape experienced a very lucrative day, it was home girl Beach Bomb who scooped the top stakes cheque of R742,188 by winning the Grade 1 World Sports Betting Cape Fillies Guineas.
Trained by Candice Bass-Robinson and ridden by Aldo Domeyer, this daughter of Lancaster Bomber paid R11.40 for the win.
The tote favourite, Sean Tarry’s Mrs Geriatrix, managed to sneak into fourth place flying up late after covering the rear for most of the race after a slow start from a very wide draw.
Silver Sanctuary took second spot for Mike de Kock while the Glen Kotzen-trained Rascova finished third.
It did give two Highveld-raiders a second and fourth place in the richest race on the day.
De Kock’s other runner, Aragosta, took top honours in the Listed Spinawinna Slots Cape Summer Stayers Handicap over 2500m.
This was a remarkable performance by the five-year-old considering that he ran seventh in the Grade 1 Betway Summer Cup at Turffontein just a week earlier, finishing just 4.15-lengths behind the winner Royal Victory.
“He had a gallop last week,” said De Kock referring to Aragosta’s run in the Summer Cup. “He won R50,000 for that gallop, so nobody’s complaining.
“And who says he can’t run consecutive Saturdays at Turffontein and Kenilworth?
“Just because nobody is doing it, does not mean it can’t be done. He is an athlete. Athletes perform.
“I didn’t come down to Cape Town with my bucket and spade and what’s that thing… a mankini. I came here to raid,” said De Kock.
He is also adamant that the sport can only benefit from raiders.
“What racing needs now more than ever is the cross-pollination between owners, trainers, and punters. The best horses should run against each other all the time. Not once a year.
“Owners and trainers need to make it happen.
“Punters should also expand their horizons a bit. Too many of them only bet on specific centres, like Kenilworth or Turffontein.
“But if the best horses compete against each other more often, they will be inclined take a bet regardless of where the race is run.”
Candice Dawson’s Raiseahallelujah took second in the stayers race, ensuring a 1-2 result for the Highveld raiders.
If there was a prize for Performance of the Day, it would have been given to See It Again.
The Michael Roberts-trained son of Twice Over scored silver medal on Durban July Day as well as Gold Cup Day, but on Saturday he showed a clean pair of shoes to nine-time winner Charles Dickens and Horse of the Year Princess Calla in the Grade 2 World Sports Betting Green Point Stakes over 1600m, who finished third and fourth respectively.
Second was Brett Crawford’s At My Command, 1.75-lengths behind See It Again.
Piere Strydom, who has now ridden See It Again seven times for four wins and three runner-up finishes, admitted he was surprised by how easy his mount disposed of the main contenders.
“I saw this as a prep run leading up to bigger races,” said Strydom after the race, “but he’s matured into a racehorse now.
“Before he was always a big baby. Whenever I saw him in the parade ring, I used to think he needs to be trimmed down. But all of a sudden, he’s just matured.
“He needed the couple of months off after the Gold Cup meeting. He needed to mature, and now he has.”
Strydom, it must be said, made See It Again’s victory look too easy. Not once did he use his crop to motivate the four-year-old.
“It’s not what I expected. Not at all,” said Strydom.
“I would have been happy to run third. Charles Dickens has always proven to be hard to beat, and I thought Princess Calla could come closest, so I would have been over the moon to finish third.”
While the Justin Snaith-trained Kwinta’s Light won the Grade 2 wsb.co.za Southern Cross Stakes over 1000m, followed home by the Dean Kannemeyer-trained Shantastic, it was East Cape raider Alan Greeff’s Three Rocks who caught the eye with her third-place finish just 0.6-lengths behind the winner.
After five consecutive wins at Fairview in Gqeberha, this three-year-old daughter of Heavenly Blue showed that she is good enough to run with the best, so expect to see her in action at Kenilworth again during the Racing Renaissance Cape Summer Season of Champions.
KwaZulu-Natal based Tony Rivalland also tasted success with his lone raider King Of The Gauls in the penultimate race, a Class 3 Handicap over 1200m.