Gold Circle Pty (Ltd)

Today's Racing :

Russian Sage bang on target for VDJ

MICHAEL CLOWER
Russian Sage booked his Vodacom Durban July ticket with a fine performance over a distance much too short for him in the Vision Group Pinnacle Plate at Kenilworth yesterday. It was the first race for six months for the 2008 Cape Derby and Daily News 2000 winner, and his first start since rejoining Justin Snaith from Mike de Kock. But Richard Fourie’s mount was almost totally ignored in the market and allowed to start at 20-1. However, nobody told the horse he wasn’t fancied. He burst out of the stalls straight into a prominent position, responded the second Fourie started riding him and kept on gamely to take an honourable third to the Glen Puller-trained 2-1 favourite Rabattache.
Snaith said: “I am very happy with Russian Sage, particularly as he has never been good over this distance. He is now a serious contender for the Durban July, and I just have to work out the best route.”
The five-year-old looked surprisingly fit but Snaith pointed out that there is plenty of improvement to come, saying: “He runs very light and there is another 20 kilos to come off him.”
After Tales Of Bravery was beaten by Last Regal and Kiss Again in a blanket finish for the Winter Guineas, Vaughan Marshall was insistent that his horse would reverse the placings in the Rossgo Winter Classic. Those who listened to his advice were rewarded with a 7-2 winner.
Karl Neisius on Last Regal made the best of his way home from an uncharacteristically long way out but MJ Byleveld sat on his tail with all the confidence of a man who knows the money is as good as in the bank. Sure enough, Tales Of Bravery swept past at the furlong pole to win by more than three lengths. The Kahal gelding, bred by the Victory Moon Breeding Syndicate, is owned by Roy Eckstein and Marshall reckons his horse can go in again in the Winter Derby on June 26, saying: “I can’t see anything here beating him.”
Felix Coetzee rode his 100th winner of the season when Townsend stayed on too strongly for stable companion Ocean Of Time in the Candrian Equine Racing Services Stormsvlei Mile. The Avontuur-bred Captain Al filly hasn’t quite lived up to the high hopes Snaith held out for her at the time of the Cape Fillies Guineas but she looks sure to win more races for Tom Clarke and Peter Foden.
Coetzee also gave Brett Crawford his second success since setting up on his own when Ian Longmore’s Wolf On The Fold landed the odds in the second, a Maiden Juvenile. Bernard Fayd’Herbe, who rode Rabattache, had a good afternoon. He got the best of a three-way photo on Drakenstein’s Western Count in the 1 400m handicap (race four) and landed the concluding maiden on Alinga, both for Mike Bass. Bass was also on the mark with the Andile Ndzongo-ridden Prabu in Peter Linley’s colours in the opening Workriders Plate. Both the trainer and Fayd’Herbe have had 80 winners this season. Andrew Fortune is really struggling with his weight and the champion was forced to give up his mounts for the second day running. Stuart Randolph successfully deputised on Tamworth in the
1 800m maiden (race nine), bringing Markus Jooste’s gelding with a devastating late run for Joey Ramsden. Stable companion Something Else was retired after finishing down the field in Rabattache’s race. Meanwhile, last year’s Canon Gold Cup winner Mokaro, sidelined by a virus in recent weeks, is now back on track but plans are fluid for stable companion Noblewood. Stephen Page said: “Mokaro is over the virus and he will run in the Cup Trial at Clairwood on June 12. “Then he goes for the Gold Cup but I don’t know yet know what I am going to do with Noblewood. I wasn’t happy with his soundness when he came back from the Betting World 1900.”

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