Gold Circle Pty (Ltd)

Today's Racing :

Val De Ra win stirs emotions

David Thiselton
The Dennis Drier-trained Val De Ra kept her unbeaten record at Clairwood yesterday and the emotions of the soon to be departing Sean Cormack gave a clue as to just how good she is. Earlier Cormack had stolen a glance over his shoulder at about the 100m mark after the powerful chestnut’s burst of speed had carried her clear of a top class field in a matter of strides in the 1 000m conditions event. She cantered to the line 2,25 lengths clear of the stakes winning sprinter, Purple Lake, with another stakes performer, Mia Joshua, a further three lengths back. Cormack explained in the post race interview with Paul Lafferty that she was still green and concluded by shaking his head and saying simply, “She’s brilliant.” Cormack departs for Singapore, where he will ride for Basil Marcus, on March 16 so will miss Val De Ra’s step up to Grade 1 class where she is likely to start favourite for races like the SA Fillies Sprint. Immediately after the race Cormack had said to Drier, “You can’t believe how much I’m going to miss this filly. Have fun with her.”
It was understandable then that his tears were close to the surface at the conclusion of the interview that followed, while Drier and Pippa Mickelburgh of Avontuur Stud also battled to contain their emotions. Such is the joy a top class racehorse can bring. Avontuur Stud both own and bred Val De Ra, now unbeaten in four starts. She is a three-year-old daughter of their resident stallion Var, last season’s leading freshman sire who is also starting
to shine this season having landed a Listed race with the Dianne Stenger-trained Esterel at Turffontein last Saturday. Cormack also rode a promising type, the Mike Miller-trained Countless Times, later on in a two-year-old feature over 1 000m. This Count Du Bois colt was still green, the surest sign of this being that he jumped over the grandstand shadow a few metres from home.
However, he responded to Cormack’s urgings 200m from home, at which stage he was hesitating to quicken, and landed the 7-20 odds by a comfortable one length margin from the Kumaran Naidoo-trained second favourite, Furious Dancer.
The Paul Lafferty-trained How Many To One finished third in the small field that had cut up to just four runners. Cormack’s mount in the other two-year-old feature, the David Kuit-trained English Aspen, was also backed into favourite, not surprisingly considering the tailwind conditions and the pace she had shown in her two previous starts. However, the Gavin van Zyl-trained Poppins, was known by the connections to be very speedy too and Aldo Domeyer used this to his advantage, leading from pillar to post. The slow starting Dave Goss-trained All Colours was virtually tailed off half-way through the race but came with a tremendous rattle to claim second from another fast finisher, the Paul Lafferty-trained Legal Account. Poppins was the second George Rowles-bred Opera King to have won on the day, the first being the Alyson Wright-trained Pageantry, who won the fourth, a maiden over 1 000m. The speed the pair of winners showed was encouraging for Rowles, considering Opera King throws horses that go a lot further. Chips and Elma Pennels led two Duncan Howells-trained horses into the winner’s enclosure, Raise The Rent who won the second and Bold Wonder, a convincing winner in the eighth of a competitive handicap. Both these horses have a particular liking for the Clairwood track.

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