Paul Reeves may have been demonstrating his training talents for nine years now but he was still David taking on Goliath in the first Cape Town two-year-old race of the season at Kenilworth on Saturday.
His R250 000 Chilly Winter cost little more than half the Justin Snaith-trained Shinnecock and at 13-1 only one other horse in the field started at a longer price. Yet the more Reeves heard about what a certainty the 9-20 favourite was the more he convinced he became that his single sling shot was going to fell the champion.
Paul Reeves
“She hadn’t been here or Durbanville to gallop, only at home where we can only go 600m. But I had put her against some very fast horses and she hadn’t been beaten by any of them,” Reeves explained as he was toasted by the filly’s eight owners in the hospitality room afterwards. “So I had a lot of confidence in her and I am sure that there is more to come.”
Richard Fourie on Shinnecock determinedly threw down the gauntlet throughout the final furlong but Sandile Mbhele’s mount kept pulling out more to hold on by a fifth of a length. Now Reeves’ sights are set on the Met day Listed race.
It was a tough day for Snaith. He might not have had his head severed with a sword but it certainly felt that way. Three more favourites bit the dust and what really hurt was that arch rival Sean Tarry went R1.8 million clear at the top of the trainer’s log. Not exactly a fitting prelude to the champion’s 44th birthday today.
Mbhele can talk as well as he rides – a considerable asset for any apprentice – and he followed up on the curiously-spelt Summer Olimpics for Michael Robinson in the Klawervelei Stud Handicap while Xola Tshayisa, 26, rode his second winner when making all on Spring Burst for his boss Glen Kotzen.
You often hear jockeys praising their mounts after winning on them and so it was particularly unusual to hear Fourie and Aldo Domeyer saying how difficult their horses actually were.
Fourie, after getting up close home on Gyre, reported: “He doesn’t like to be in front. If you get there too soon he will throw the anchor. When I pulled him out he went straight back behind the horse ahead of him and he was already pulling himself up when I hit the line.”
Domeyer added about Vikram: “He is not an easy horse to ride. When he hits the front he starts messing around and tries to drop the bit.”
Corne Orffer had no such problems with his Brett Crawford double on Senatla and Princess Irene while Paddy Kruyer went home convinced that Greg Cheyne had stolen the last on Rush Hour Girl – “The track is very fast, Greg got away from them and they couldn’t peg him back.”
Interviewer Fee Ramsden remarked to Piet Steyn that he was looking a bit down before Morne Winnaar just got up on Metorite in the Khaya Stables Handicap. The trainer replied: “Things are not going my way at the moment. But one or two more drinks and I will be a lot better!”
By Michael Clower
