Do It Again (speed score 115) produced a strong late surge to deny the three year- old Soqrat (s/s 114) in an outstanding Queens Plate performance with Rainbow Bridge (s/s 110) back in third. Undercover Agent and Legal Eagle, though well beaten, both attained 108’s which is usually good enough to win a G1
Pleasetomeetyou (speed score 101) got a glowing write up back in August after making an exceptional debut (s/s 100) over the Kenilworth 1000m trip. He followed up on that by winning the Sophomore Sprint, then twice failed to last home in 1400m and 1200m contests. Back over a fast 1000m, the Querari gelding proved
Legal Eagle’s flawless record over 1600m was maintained, albeit in a desperate finish to the G2 Green Point Stakes where just a head separated the first four at the wire. This was the third year in succession that the son of Grey’s Inn has prevailed in this particular race, over his favorite distance. The
Carrying 52kg’s, Tilbury Fort (s/s 105) swept through to win the 2018 G1 Summer Cup at Turffontein over big outsider Dawn Assault and favoured Cascapedia with the top weight Coral Fever in fourth spot. Tilbury Fort was expertly prepared by trainer Sean Tarry, coming in fresh to produce a career best under Lyall Hewitson,
Rebels Champ scored 102 to win a competitive Pinnacle Stakes Sprint @ Scottsville. The chestnut has now won six of 18 races after having been well bought for just R10 000 at the CTS two year- old sale. Credit to Paul Peter for getting the best out of this unfashionable son of Rebel King, who
Hawwaam got a mention in this column after a remarkable speed figure of 103 on debut. He made the expected improvement to land the Dingaans at Turffontein with an excellent number of 108. He is reportedly Mike de Kock’s best three year- old and now clearly a principal contender for further honours. KZN raider,
After a few postponements due to dodgy tracks and stormy weather the Grand Series finally took place at Turffontein on Saturday. Legs 1 and 2, together with the Consolation, were all hotly contested races, going down to photo finish verdicts. Soldier On (speed score 93) Tsitsikamma Dance (s/s 97) and Big Mistake (s/s 99)
Domestic racing was limited this weekend to Greyville as there was nothing scheduled for Cape Town and the bulk of the Turffontein meeting got washed out by a dramatic Saturday afternoon thunderstorm. Usually only notable speed figures are highlighted in this newsletter – but the KZN card did not yield anything out of the
Spring is a fun time for racing fans as this is when the better thoroughbreds start coming to the fore. Only a tiny percentage of the horse population will ever be good enough to contest Stakes races and identifying those youngsters improving sharply to be capable of competing at the peak level is part
Classy filly, Rose in Bloom (s/s 93 + has run 104 @ best) made a fluent start to her Highveld Spring campaign when zipping past Rings and Things (s/s 92) in an Assessment Plate at Turffontein. The Gimmethegreenlight filly has only won twice, yet has placed behind quality opposition like Magical Wonderland and Snowdance