Any punter on the 8/10 “jolly”, Greaterix in the Gauteng Guineas would have been counting their winnings going into the final 200m as he moved up sweetly under the hands, on the inside of long-time leader, Parisian Walkway.
Remarkably, Alec Laird’s 33/1 longshot fought back to get the gold gong, as Mike & Mathew de Kock’s, Greaterix did not quite go through with his effort. Favourite backers were left stunned as the one- time winner, with a previous best of just 92, somehow out -finished their pick.
The runner- up merited a speed fig of 99, below his previous best of 105, whilst Parisian Walkway improved to score 100 and spring a wild upset.
The De Kock’s were successful in the Fillies Guineas with Spumante Dolce (s/s 97) as she went practically all the way to stave off VJ’s Angel (s/s 97 +) and heavily favoured, Quid Pro Quo (s/s 96) who got rolled at 4/10.
The winner is now a perfect three from three and should be followed till beaten, though the horse to take out of the race is VJ’s Angel. She closed ground rapidly in the final furlong to just miss, having been far behind in the early stages.
“Main Defender is back” was the call of racetrack commentator at Turffontein. And the clock bears that out with a towering speed figure of 111 +, taking the closing sectional of 22.9 seconds into account. He seems at his absolute best over seven panels, an unusual, intermediate distance.
Barbaresco (s/s 109) and course and distance specialist Texas Red (s/s 108) earned fine numbers, too – though they could not hold out the turbo-charged, odds- on fave.
Dreamland (s/s 103) won a competitive Pinnacle Stakes sprint in a result for the bookies. This is the highest score of his career, and it proved just enough to hold off Magic Tattoo (s/s 102) Golden Sickle (s/s 102) and Chocolate Soldier (s/s 101) in a close finish. The starting price was 40/1.