Gold Circle Pty (Ltd)

Today's Racing :

It’s double take for De Kock

Andrew Harrison
There is no stopping Mike de Kock. The man has seemingly more ordinances in his arsenal than the Pentagon has access to and he pulled off a one-two on the Vaal sand yesterday when Storm Crossing landed like a mortar in a raft of ducks.
Under a supremely confident ride by apprentice Tshwaro Appie, Storm Crossing pounced coming through the two furlong marker and waltzed home unchallenged in the Listed August Stakes over 1 200m as the opposition melted away in the heat of battle.
Stable companion Braggadacio ran on best of the balance to give De Kock and owner/breeder Mike Rattray the one-two with Gold Game staying on for third ahead of long-time leader Renegade.
This victory booked Storm Crossing a place in the Emerald Cup to be run over 1 400m on the Vaal sand next month and on this showing he must have a serious chance of landing the honours in the country’s richest race on that surface.
So easy was the victory that Appie was saluting the stands with a 100m to run and the stipes are likely to take a dim view of the youngster’s celebrations even though the winning margin was daylight and that it was his biggest win to date.
The Mike Azzie-trained Imali was sent out favourite but after threatening briefly, he faded out to finish in the pack.
Top weight Renegade was quickest out of the gate and under Piere Strydom took the lead closely followed by Imali and Gold Game with a three-length gap to the chasing pack.
Approaching the final 400m, apprentice JP van der Merwe went for broke on Imali as he moved up alongside Renegade with Gold Game in hot pursuit. However, Storm Crossing was travelling ominously well and under hands and heels urgings, the gelded son of Western Winter simply ate up the ground and went on to win as he liked.
At Kenilworth, the Vaughan Marshall-trained Wethreekings finished with a rattle to outsprint outsider Cree Lodge and Copa De La Rey in the Glassmen Handicap over 1200 m.
Copa De La Rey and Los Colmos disputed the early lead but when Felix Coetzee asked for an effort on Los Colmos it was not forthcoming.
Copa De La Rey plugged on gamely but proved not match for the finishing burst from Wethreekings who sailed past under Karis Teetan for trainer Vaughan Marshall.
Cree Lodge, whose last outing was over 2 400m, kicked on well to deny Copa De La Rey second while Los Colmos finished one-paced in the pack.

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