Riaan van Reenen and Carl Burger have long believed in getting their horses as fit as they possibly can and now the partners have a new weapon in their armoury, one that was almost totally denied to them previously.
“You used to be only allowed to gallop feature horses at Kenilworth,” Van Reenen explained. “It was a bad system and people had to cheat it to survive. Now, though, the smaller trainers are given a chance because they allow you gallops in proportion to the number of runners you have.”
The result was two juvenile winners for the stable at Kenilworth on Saturday and, almost unheard of this season even among the bigger Cape Town yards, the double was achieved with newcomers. They were both long shots, Rebels Spirit coming home at 36-1 and Midnight Moonlight scoring at 25-1.
Dean Kannemeyer (Nkosi Hlophe)
“Both horses had come here twice to gallop and so they were ready,” said Van Reenen. “Under the old system they would have needed it badly.”
Midnight Moonight is the first winner to carry the colours of Fred Green who has an interest in Marinaresco. Green, semi-retired after selling his health care business two years ago, has been owning horses since 2013 when he became involved in racing through his Hammie’s Rugby Club friendship with Bryn Ressell and Marsh Shirtliff.
“The first horses I had weren’t that good and so they said they would give me a share in a decent one,” said the tall Green, explaining how he ended up with a tenth of a July winner. “I now have shares in five horses and winning with one in my own colours was quite an occasion.”
So too was it for the Van Reenen-Burger association because they completed the first treble of their partnership when Rocketeer, despite drifting from 3-1 to 7-1, landed the Tabonline.co.za Handicap. All three winners were ridden by Craig Bantam who missed the previous three meetings after being laid low by ‘flu and bronchitis. The 21-year-old has now ridden 27 winners.
It was an afternoon of shock results with Ossie Noach adding to the party by coming home at 66-1 on the Adam Marcus-trained Lavender Ridge in the last, much to the delight of the bookmakers, particularly those on course who had to operate in a pneumonia-inducing Antarctic wind tunnel all afternoon.
But the horse who really made their day was their old friend Cossack Guard in the 1 400m maiden. They could hardly believe it when punters went for him yet again – despite seven consecutive seconds – but those who backed Corne Orffer’s mount were convinced that Dean Kannemeyer had solved the problem by fitting blinkers and the 12-10 shot went off as if the hounds of hell were snapping at his heels.
But he was a spent force inside the final furlong and you could hear the cheers from the layers when he managed only sixth behind MJ Byleveld on Querari’s Secret, the only two-year-old in the field and also fitted with first time blinkers – on the advice of Vaughan Marshall’s assistant Adele Alsop.
Justin Snaith was on the mark with Cigar Boy (Jonathan: “He was a 100 handicap horse at one time and he has come all the way down to 66”) and Red Ginger while the Glen Kotzen-trained South Side was the most impressive winner of the day when galloping the opposition off their feet under Richard Fourie in the conditions plate.
By Michael Clower
