Gold Circle Pty (Ltd)

Today's Racing :

Domeyer has championship in his sights

Michael Clower
Aldo Domeyer took the apprentice championship a significant step nearer when riding a double at Kenilworth yesterday to take his score for the season to 65.
With nearest rival JP van der Merwe partnering only one at Turffontein, Domeyer is 12 clear but he is determined to leave no stone unturned in order to wrap up the title.
He said: “I went for it last season but the travelling became too much and the quality of my rides deteriorated. But I’m going to really put it in this month and in the coming week I’ll be in Kimberley, Durban and Zimbabwe.”
With his father Andrew Fortune the current champion jockey, it promises to be a notable family double and the 23-year-old kicked off yesterday by leading over a furlong out on Graham Beck’s Captain Thriller in the opening maiden juvenile to give Mike Bass his 90th winner of the campaign.
Surprisingly the winner was allowed to start at 14-1 even though Candice Robinson told Stan Elley that the newcomer was the best of the stable’s three runners, and the Tellytrack presenter made sure that his audience got the message.
There was a fair bit of head-scratching on Yogas Govender’s part before he decided to change tactics on Sabine Plattner’s Dancing Isle in the 1 400m maiden (race four).
Domeyer was told to hold up the filly and come late. The instructions were followed to the letter, much to the disappointment of Janka’s connections who saw their filly pipped on the post.
Govender explained: “Dancing Isle had shown ability but she sort of lost it. I studied the form and came to the conclusion that she was racing too handy.”
Only Anton Marcus and Anthony Delpech have ridden more winners than Felix Coetzee this season and the three-time champion has reached the 125-winner mark.
He drove Fresh Chestnut (in George Ragunan’s colours) into what proved a decisive lead early in the straight in the mile handicap (race five) and followed up on Legion Of Honour in the concluding maiden.
Justin Snaith was full of praise for his stable jockey, saying: “He’s the hardest working jockey I’ve ever seen. He is totally professional and absolutely deadly. My owners are lucky to have him.”
The double brought Snaith’s total to 129. He needs another 19 to equal last term’s personal best but he is not optimistic about getting there.
He said: “I think 148 was a record for a Cape Town-based trainer but we don’t have enough races left to get another 20 winners.”
Andries Steyn was just about the only person on the course not stunned when Willen Englebrecht’s homebred Pelican Point came home at 40-1 under Robert Khathi in the fillies maiden juvenile (race two).
Steyn completed a double - “I can’t remember when the last one was but it was quite a long time ago” - when M.J. Byleveld delivered Pasadera fast and late for a Cristano Stander-headed partnership in the 1 200m divided handicap.
Street Runner, trained by Glen Puller for Sean Pillay and Brent Donnelly, was the most impressive of the three juvenile maiden winners. Gerrit Schlechter sent him on just under two furlongs out and the 22-10 joint favourite strode clear to beat Domeyer’s mount Call The Nation by almost four lengths.
La Rosita is a tough Australian-bred and, despite spending 18 months confined to a stable after breaking both sides of her pelvis, Dave Rosevear’s filly carried too many guns for the opposition in the second division of the 1 200m divided handicap.
Karl Neisius’s mount gave Vaughan Marshall his 50th winner of the season.
Andrew Nienaber has struck up a useful partnership with the Shane Humby-trained Wise Choice and the gelding won for the second time in his last three starts in the colours of Prithie Naidoo in race seven, a 1 200m handicap.

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