The highlight of the Greyville poly meeting on Friday night was a win by the Gavin can Zyl-trained Silvano gelding Night Shadow, which proved he had well and truly turned the corner.

This horse had been quite frustrating to follow after winning his maiden in good style over 1200m on the poly and he dropped from an initial handicap mark of 79 down to a 63 after running not a single place in his next eight starts. However, he then suddenly flashed home when stepped up to 1800m, beating the promising Kitty’s Destiny. He followed up with another win over 2000m and then ran on strongly for third in the KZN Summer Chapter Challenge Final over 2000m on turf.

On Friday he proved the turnaround was likely due to him coming into his own, rather than merely being suited to middle distances, as he ran on strongly to annihilate them by three lengths over 1600m under Brandon Lerena. Gareth can Zyl, who trains the Brian Burnard-owned string for the yard, has certainly brought out the best of this four-year-old, who provides more evidence that Silvanos are like fine wines and improve with age.  It will be interesting to see how much further Night Shadow can progress.

The aforementioned Kitty’s Destiny also ran on Friday night and looked to be the chief victim in the argy-bargy down the straight in race 6 over 2000m caused by Silver Spring. The Weiho Marwing-trained Jonovich was away from the scrum and snuck down the inside to win under 2,5kg claimer Eric Ngwane.
Dennis Bosch has been in fine form and looks to have a fair sort in the well named Elusive Fort colt Elusive Wolf, who bears a striking resemblance to his famous dam sire Wolf Power. The penny is still dropping with him and with second time blinkers in his third career start he came home strongly under Anthony Delpech to beat the odds-on favourite, the well-bred Hearts ‘R Pumping, in a Maiden over 1400m by three-quarters of a length and the rest of the field were a further nine lengths back..

Delpech clinched a double in the last when the 82 merit rated three-year-old Mr Winsome ran on powerfully to beat older horses comfortably in a handicap over 2000m. This is another son of Silvano with a bright future.
The Craig Eudey-trained Blue Beach is improving in the typical fashion of a daughter of Ideal World and caught the eye running on strongly to win a fillies and mares maiden over 1400m under Warren Kennedy, particularly considering she will appreciate further.

Alistair Gordon has formed a fine partnership with Alec Forbes and they won the third over 1400m with hard-knocking Right Approach mare Donna Amata.

Andre Nel won the seventh over 2000m with Jet Master mare Jet Ntombi, ridden by 4kg claimer Calvin Ncgobo. Nel has had 18 winners countrywide at a strike rate of 12,77% since taking over Sabine Plattner’s string in September. The win clinched a first career double for Ngcobo as he had earlier ridden the Colin Scott-traine Galileo gelding Maachaan to victory in a 1600m handicap.
By David Thiselton
Picture (Nkosi Hlope): Night Shadow wins at Greyville on Friday night