Brett Crawford will give Captain America just one more run – in the Green Point on November 21 – before attempting to win the L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate for the second successive season.
“Saturday’s race was a starting point and he took a little bit of time to get going but I was happy with him,” said the man who used to train Futura and who would like nothing better than to beat that horse in the country’s premier mile race.
His Horse Chestnut Stakes winner, running for the first time in seven months, would have won the Hollard Humdinger Pinnacle in another half stride and this was a fine comeback.
The unlucky horse, though, was 33-1 shot Ashton Park who was only a head back third and who would surely have won had not Robert Khathi fatally dropped his whip just inside the 200m mark.
But what might have been was of little concern to Mike Robinson who hugged his wife-cum-assistant Luella in delight after the stable’s long-time flag bearer Blarney Bay was announced the winner, the 20-1 shot’s first success since he beat Ashton Park in June last year.
Robinson said: “When I saw MJ go to the front on Chestnut’s Rocket I thought I was in trouble because Blarney Bay doesn’t quicken when he is not out in front. I have nominated him for a 1 400m handicap next Wednesday and if he pulls up well he might run.”
This was red-letter landmark for Heavelon van der Hoven – his 20th winner, reducing his claim to 2.5kg – and the 22-year-old was landing his second double after also scoring on the exciting Illuminator in the Prescient Maid In Pink Handicap.
The 3-1 favourite more than made up for his slow start by producing a sparkling turn of foot and Glen Puller said: “There is a lot more development to come and I think he will get better and better. He should get up to a mile, especially with his style of racing.”
Donovan Mansour, in double form on the Joey Ramsden-trained Free Agent and Targaryan for Mike Bass (who also won with Spirit Of Hamilton under Grant van Niekerk), reckons he is in Cape Town to stay.
He said: “When I came here just over two months ago I thought it would be very difficult to get in with the various trainers but I have found that they have a much more homely relationship with the jockeys than they do in Jo’burg, and you can build on that.
“I have also found that in Cape Town there is no punting pressure whereas in Jo’burg it’s all about the punt. Here they are just happy to win and that’s a big help.”
Adam Marcus is on a roll and half his 12 winners this term (strike rate 22%) have come at the last four Cape Town meetings with Gorgeous Gaby arriving with a tremendous run under Aldo Domeyer in the Capital International Handicap.
Marcus said: “This is the best run I’ve had in my short career. I switched many of mine off during the Durbanville season and they have come right with the weather, especially the fillies.”
He did, however, have an unexpected reverse with La Flambee who started 2-1 favourite for the Fig Fillies Maiden and managed only seventh. The course vet could find nothing wrong but Domeyer said his mount continuously changed stride.
Punters got off to a disastrous start, plunging on unplaced newcomer Shamrock Skipper from 7-2 to 9-10 and allowing the Chris Puller-ridden winner Chennai Spice to drift from 5-1 to 14-1.
A bemused Darryl Hodgson said: “At the beginning of the week I felt couldn’t lose. Then I started hearing the rumours and by Saturday I thought I would be lucky to run a place!”
The Snaith team, on a lucrative high at Turffontein, left their local course empty-handed but they wouldn’t have done so had Greg Cheyne not stolen the Miton Optimal Handicap. He quickly built up a commanding lead on the Glen Kotzen-trained Pearl Oyster Bay and then held on by the rapidly-disappearing skin of his teeth from Snaith’s Jets-A-Blazing.
By Michael Clower
Picture: Captain America (Wayne Marks)
