Gold Circle Pty (Ltd)

Today's Racing :

Trainer Dixon is on the Mark

David Thiselton
Mark Dixon, who trains out of Summerveld, has had remarkable success raiding the Vaal sand track and punters have learnt to be wary whenever a pair of his horses are carded no matter how long they are on bookmakers’ boards.
His latest success occurred last Tuesday when first Cwebe Cwebe finished a close second in a 1 000m maiden at odds of 20-1 before Shoot The Breeze ran out a facile winner of a 1 200m handicap at 7-1. Dixon’s 39 Highveld raiders over the last three seasons, the vast majority of which have run on the Vaal sand, have netted nine winners, an impressive strike rate of 23%. On top of that he has also claimed five second places and five other stake cheques. His formula involves looking at the quality of the horses’ work on the sand at home before considering their pedigrees and then combining these factors with a proven successful travelling strategy. “We travel the horses over night and arrive at the course as close to the race as possible,” he said. Former trainer, John Fox, who now runs a horse transport business, takes the Dixon raiders up in pairs in his two-berth trailer. Dixon has learnt which pedigrees work well on the sand and sites Muhtafal and Kahal as two good examples. Both of them are Mr Prospector line stallions. “Knees, knees, knees,” is one of Dixon’s training philosophies. “About 90% of a horse’s work will be done on the sand as it is easier on them, especially on their knees,” he said. Consequently he is soon able to tell which horses run well on this surface. Cwebe Cwebe, a three-year-old filly by Muhtafal, provides evidence. “She ran very disappointingly in four starts on turf, but at home on the sand there is hardly a horse in the yard that can keep up with her,” said Dixon. However, it was Shoot The Breeze, a three-year-old filly by Kahal, that got tongues wagging on Tuesday as she won in impressive fashion. Her record of two wins from four starts is a notable training feat as Dixon describes her one front leg as being so crooked it virtually resembles a “banana” from front on.“She is offset at the knee and turns in,” he explained. Shoot The Breeze is a Summerhill-bred half-sister to Umngazi (Muhtafal), who earned Dixon the biggest pay cheque of his career when winning the Emperor’s Palace Ready To Run Cup over 1 400m at Turffontein in 2007 before following up to win the Grade 3 Byerley Turk over the same distance at Scottsville a few months later. “Myself and Chad Cooke (racing journalist) were at a function just before the Sales talking to Mick Goss and he told us that Umngazi's half-sister wasn’t on the sale due to her legs. “We asked if we could lease her and he was more than happy to do so.” Shoot The Breeze, thus, became one of the Independent On Saturday Punters’ Club’s horses, a syndicate set up for racing enthusiasts by Cooke. “The winter going in KZN is generally hard and I could see she was hating it when going down in her previous start,” continued Dixon. “Her work on the sand is very good and she has the pedigree on both her male and female sides. The Vaal sand was the obvious route for her.”
Both Umngazi and Shoot The Breeze are chestnuts with very similar white colourings on their respective faces and legs. However, in conformation, they take after their sires with Umngazi being a compact bull of a horse, while Shoot The Breeze has impressive length and an eyecatchingly big stride.
On Tuesday Shoot The Breeze broke quickly from her pole position draw and was always travelling well, just off the pace, under Gavin Lerena. Lerena merely had to hold her together, whilst allowing her to use her big stride, before letting her go at the business end. She soon drew clear and won by 3,5 length, no mean feat for a three-year-old running off a merit rating of 84. She pulled up sound and Dixon will keep her to the sand for the rest of the winter. “We will try and win some black type for Mick Goss in one of the sand features,” he said.

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