Gold Circle Pty (Ltd)

Today's Racing :

Sunsational wins with ears pricked

MICHAEL CLOWER
Sunsational lived up to her name when storming home in the blistering heat in the Riverworld Stud Prix du Cap at Kenilworth last Saturday.
Sparkling Gem started odds-on for the second successive race but Richard Fourie, who knows this filly’s abilities and limitations so well, made sure that she did not get the easy lead she likes by setting a strong pace on Seal Of Approval. Indeed, when the taps were turned on in earnest, Sparkling Gem found little and faded into fifth.
Karl Neisius on the winner reported: “I always kept the favourite within a decent distance but when I went past her she wasn’t going anywhere.”
Sunsational is owned by Sue Mackenzie, Warne and Wendy Rippon, Graeme Joffe and Philip Kahan who bred the Windrush filly at his Alchemy stud. But perhaps punters should take more notice of the size of horses’ ears in future.
“Sunsational has long ears which makes her game,” said trainer Mike Bass. “She is as honest as the day is long, and all horses with long ears are like that.
“She has strengthened up and she is now probably better than we thought. She goes to Durban and anything from 1 400m to 2 200m will suit her.”
Sparkling Gem was finishing out of the frame for the first time in 14 months and Felix Coetzee said: “She’s had a lot of tough races. She ran such a good race in the Paddock Stakes, when she gave me everything she had - maybe it’s taken a bit out of her.”
This was an unexpected reverse for Justin Snaith who had won the previous four.
Most of his horses were on fire in marked contrast to three weeks earlier when they suffered defeat after defeat, turning the stable’s heady Met-day expectations into dejection and despair.
“I had a minor bug in the yard in the week of the Met,” Snaith related.
“I didn’t know I had it at the time but I was a bit worried because the horses had gone quiet. Now they are like lions.”
Coetzee had everything off the bridle by halfway when making all on Weatherman in the 1 000m maiden (race two) for Ken Truter and Hassen Adams.
In the next We Three, part-owned by breeder Bill Nelson, stretched away in the final furlong to score by five lengths.
The former champion made it three when Hassen Adams’ Royal Bounty produced a fine turn of foot to shoot clear inside the final 200m of the graduation plate (race five), but he found himself on the wrong one in the preceding seven furlong maiden.
Snaith sent out the first three but Gaynor Rupert’s Cutty Sark under Richard Fourie proved much too strong for the Coetzee-ridden Fresh Chestnut.
“I will be in trouble with Felix after this,” Snaith admitted. “I told him that Fresh Chestnut was working so well that he should ride her.”
Fourie had a rough time in the pens when his mount reared and painfully squashed his right foot. He was limping badly when he returned to unsaddle but he recovered sufficiently to take his remaining rides.
Snaith, incidentally, reported that his Cape Derby third Robert The Bruce has been gelded. No decision has been made on whether the horse goes to Durban or stays at home where the winter series would be an obvious target.
It’s early in the season to start getting carried away by impressive two-year-olds but there was a lot to like about
the way Rhoan Gardiner’s Brilliant Cut won the opening maiden.
He made every yard and fairly stretched away in the closing stages to come home ears-pricked, easing up with rider MJ Byleveld predicting “he will be a serious horse.” “He was silly and stupid when he made his debut on
Met day but that race turned the corner for him,” said Vaughan Marshall.
“He is not going to Durban but he could run in the Nursery here.”
Marshall and Byleveld also won the concluding 1 800m handicap with Roy Eckstein’s Tales Of Bravery while the Glen Kotzen-trained Baines proved too strong for the opposition under Karis Teetan in race seven.

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