Twist Of Fate booked his Scottsville ticket – and Bernard Fayd’Herbe’s place on his back -by giving weight all round in the Somerset 1200 at Kenilworth yesterday.

But apparently it’s runner-up Arabian Air who should go into the notebooks. Rarely have I heard Joey Ramsden raving about a horse as he did this one.

“Jesus, this is a good horse,” the Milnerton trainer insisted. “And he had the worst preparation – only ten days to get over his first run – and that’s very hard for a two-year-old.”

Almost needless to say, he promptly confirmed that the Silvano colt is a Guineas prospect but it is Twist Of Fate, owned by the Mauritius-based River Palace Racing Syndicate, whose name goes into the record books as Ramsden’s fifth Somerset winner in six seasons.

Fayde’Herbe made for the faster ground on the stands side on the 6-1 son of Master Of My Fate, led a furlong out and held Arabian Air’s renewed challenge by a hard-fought fifth of a length.

Ramsden said: “This is one of the toughest two-year-olds I have ever trained. He also runs straight and true, and he is such a hard-knocking horse that it would be ridiculous not to have a look at the Gold Medallion.”

If Ramsden has some of the top juvenile colts it is Candice Bass-Robinson who has the dominant hand among the fillies and her two runners totally dominated the Perfect Promise Sprint. Unfortunately for punters the wrong one won.

They plunged on Nous Voila, backing her from 2-1 to 8-10, and allowed Lesedi La Rona to drift from 18-10 to 9-2. It was only in the last few strides that they found they had got it wrong.

Grant van Niekerk somehow conjured some hidden reserves from the supposed second string and, despite his mount drifting left towards the other horse, he snatched a head verdict with the next closest a full four lengths back.

Van Niekerk said: “I know Aldo was very bullish about Nous Voila but I rate mine highly and I think she is a filly worth following.”

Gaynor Rupert named her Trippi homebred shortly after the third-largest diamond ever found was discovered is Lesotho. It was subsequently sold for R704 million (“About what our filly is now worth,” quipped Drakenstein racing manager Kevin Sommerville).

Domeyer, though, remains loyal to Nous Voila, saying: “I was always going well and when she quickened I thought I would win. It will always be close between them but I do think mine will prove the better.”

Their trainer added that both are likely to go for the Kenilworth Fillies Nursery on June 9 rather than travel to Durban – “they have too much of a career ahead of them for that”- and that both are Fillies Guineas prospects. “And, don’t forget, there is also Santa Clara and Clouds Unfold.”

By Michael Clower