That’s My Baby ran out a fluent winner at Greyville’s Friday night meeting. Esteemed was backed at odds on but never looked likely, coming off the bit around the turn and missing the frame.
Instead, Sean Tarry’s mare accelerated powerfully down the inside to win convincingly, earning a fine speed score of 105. She was cleverly placed under the terms of the race – factoring in Anaas Mosaheb’s apprentice allowance, she carried just 48kg’s.
That’s My Baby, a six-year-old mare by Master of My Fate, has raced at most of SA’s courses, outside of the Eastern Cape, that is. Perhaps the key to her career top efforts lies in the state of the going. Her best numbers have been achieved in the soft – as was the case on Friday.
Greaterix, returning from a lengthy layoff, ran second, which was worth a figure of 95. He has already run ten points higher as a three-year-old, so can improve past that level if remaining physically fine.
Bjorn Ironside s/s 97 +, has run 102 at best, took out the 1200m Spring Spree Stakes at Turffontein’s inside track on Saturday.
Punters have been commenting on the recent volatility in South African betting markets. Here is another example as Bjorn Ironside drifted like a barge from around 5’s out to 14/1. Not that the move stopped him from winning in some style. Gavin Lerena rode a fresh horse coming back after nearly four months off track.
Max the Magician, supported from 6’s into half those odds, was leading with 100m to go but could not hold off the winner’s rails run.
JA Janse van Vuuren is the successful conditioner of this Gimmethegreenlight out of Trippi mare, Dance at Dawn.
Sadly, Trippi (USA), so influential as a foundation stallion at Drakenstein Stud, died during the week aged 29.
A statement from Drakenstein, quoted in the Bloodhorse, said: “After establishing the stud in 2003, Gaynor Rupert travelled to America to view 28 potential stallions, and was immediately captivated by the magnificent bay, describing him as the most beautiful horse she had ever seen. Gaynor made the decision to purchase him as her first sire to stand at Drakenstein, and the beginning of a legacy was born.
For Gaynor Rupert, Trippi’s importance was inseparable from the development of Drakenstein itself. He arrived before the farm had an established stallion roster and supplied it with an identity: an internationally proven horse whose results justified the decision to bring him to the Cape.
Many of his best South African horses were bred or raced by Drakenstein, among them Charles Dickens, Inara, Winchester Mansion, and Trip Of Fortune, making his story inextricably bound to the farm’s own.
Trippi’s final crop are three-year-olds in South Africa this season. As they continue to race, and as his sons’ first generations come through, the influence of Drakenstein’s first stallion remains very much a part of the present rather than only its history.”