Both Follow Me and Forever Mine got to belatedly show their best form this year and cause mild upsets at Turffontein’s Saturday meeting.

They competed in Pinnacle Stakes over the same 1450m trip. Follow Me earned a speed figure of 100 when denying Queen of Shadows (s/s 99) whilst Forever Mine was a few ticks quicker registering a good fig of 103.

Follow Me is a four-year-old Gimmethegreenlight filly trained by Stuart Pettigrew for HSH Princess Charlene du Monaco Grimaldi. Mike de Kock is Forever Mine’s conditioner. He will be most satisfied, after a long time between drinks, to eventually get the five-year-old son of Vercingetorix (who as a youngster tangled with high class rivals, Malmoos and Mk’s Pride) back into the winner’s circle. 

Cruise Control is building up a smart resume in Port Elizabeth over the short cuts. He took out the Speedsters Stakes at Fairview on Friday for the fourth victory of his six-start career. JP van der Merwe is riding well all around the country (hit a treble in PE and a double in Joburg, including the winning ride on Forever Mine) and he guided Gavin Smith’s sprinter to an emphatic trouncing of Whatever Next. Cruise Control’s speed figure of 98 + is pretty neat for a newly turned 3 y old.

Trainer Aidan o Brien is a living legend in Ireland – in fact, his record right around the world is amazing and he revived Luxembourg to win the G1 Irish Champions Stakes at Leopardstown over the weekend. His charge injured a muscle in a major setback when he was three, and he was returning after a slightly labored prep win in a lower grade a month ago.

O Brien has won this prestigious race 11 times – including the last four running’s – so knows how to get the job done. As it turned out, the now rapidly progressive Luxembourg was made to work hard by Onesto to sneak home by just half a length. He also got the rub of the green as bad things were happening in traffic to thwart favoured, Vadeni back in third.

Still, Luxembourg was a worthy winner and alert bookies sensing potential danger have slashed his odds from 20/1 down to as short as 5’s for the upcoming Arc de Triomphe in early October.