Chesney van Zyl, recently granted boxes at Summerveld where he could join father Gavin and brother Gareth in the near future, has fired a couple of salvos already with Marchingtontogether winning last week and Sea Venture landing her short odds in the fifth at Greyville yesterday although the filly’s supporters were poised to tear up their tickets two furlongs out.
It’s not often that Anton Marcus gets himself into trouble but he was faced with an N2 traffic jam as he looked to make his run up the centre. But like a good mini bus taxi driver, he switched to the yellow lane and Sea Venture responded with alacrity like any 9-20 shot should, going on to win as she like. “Jockeys like to ride horses like this,” said Marcus, panting in the heat. “She was far superior to the rest of the field.”
“I thought there was enough space,” said Marcus of the gap that appeared in front of him but will have had visions of Friday night when apprentice Jason Gates lost his compass for the umpteenth time costing Marcus of any chance he had of winning. “He should have been had up for attempted murder,” said Marcus after he had scored a narrow win on odds-on favourite Genereight for Robbie and Shannon Hill in the first although the line came just in time as Diego de Gouveia was closing fast on out-of-province raider Oona.
De Gouveia, who has improved markedly as a rider since moving to the Highveld, made amends for that narrow defeat as he rode a superb finish on Bel Canto Chorus for Stuart Pettigrew in the fourth. He tracked the pace all the way through before making his move. “This won’t be the last time that you will be seeing her. She loves the poly.”
Runaway Gal, just short of an outing in her come-back run, made light work of the sixth as Brett Crawford’s filly scooted away from her rivals with Lyle Hewtison copying a bike rider on a down-hill stretch of the Tour de France as he coasted to the line.
O’Keeffe kept up her remarkably consistent form on the poly track, never finishing further back than second as she edged out Ella’s World.
Runaway Gal was Mario Ferreira’s second winner of the afternoon after a never-say-die ride on Flamenco Dancer for Dennis Bosch. Favourite Spring Breeze led into the final 50 m but was swamped by a tidal wave of runners led by Flamenco Dancer who go home by a head with Spring Breeze back in fifth, beaten less than a length.
Former champion Mark Khan, out of action for close on a decade before making a comeback last year, drew on all his reserves to get favourite Mylisha home in the shadow of the post for Lezzeanne Forbes whose stable has come to hand nicely in recent weeks.
It was a day of favourable results for the most part but the bomb landed in the last where Silver Cent landed a 40-1 body blow under Eric Ngwane for Lola Crawford.
By Andrew Harrison
