S’manga Khumalo was the man of the moment at the Vaal on Tuesday after he came away with six winners on the nine-race card.
Three of his winners were for trainer Alec Laird, two for St John Gray and one for Candice Dawson.
There were great hopes he could get a seventh win in Race 9 as he rode 2-1 favourite Peanut Butter for Laird. But although he was always up with the leading group, his mount was unable to match them in the latter stages and he finished fourth behind Louvain, a 25-1 shot ridden by Deon Sampson for Corne Spies.
The other two winners at the meeting were ridden by apprentice Joshwin Solomons.
For those clever enough to take an All To Come bet on all six runners, depending on the prices you got, it would have yielded a return of around 2000-1.
Khumalo set the tone by riding the first four winners on the card, starting with All Aglow (21-20) for Dawson in Race 1, Imperial Duke (16-10) for Laird in Race 2, Fred (13-1) for Gray in Race 3 and Don’t Look Back (37-20) also for Gray, in Race 4.
The last two were both for Laird. Win No 5 came up on Pamushana’s Pride (14-10) in Race 7 and finally Prince Evlanoff (33-10) in Race 8.
“We wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for the trainers and all the people who put in the blood and sweat behind the scenes. They also deserve the recognition,” said Khumalo.
“I would like to thank all of them, as well as my sponsors Wilgerbosdrift and Mauritzfontein.”