Dean Kannemeyer’s tremendous run since arriving in KZN for the Champions Season in March continued yesterday when his four-year-old Dynasty gelding Solid Speed won the Non-black Type Highland Night Cup over 2400m at Greyville under Donovan Dillon.
However, the winner of earlier Greyville races, Mambo Mime and Maybe Yes, as well as St Tropez, who won yesterday’s Gr 3 SW Security SA East Cape Derby in Port Elizabeth, look set to have just as big an impact on the Champions Season.
Solid Speed, starting joint 4/1 favourite, sat in fifth place off a fair pace set by Jay Power and produced a sweeping run on the outside to win by a comfortable two lengths from the always handy Akii Bua and Crime Victim, who ran on well. Coltrane and Kolkata ran disappointing races beaten 3,65 and 14,65 lengths respectively considering the suppressed handicap conditions favoured them at the top of the weights.
Solid Speed has now won half of his mere eighth career starts and is unbeaten in two starts over this trip so could possibly give Kannemeyer a third career Gr 1 Gold Cup (sponsored now by eLan Property Group).
At Fairview the Joey Ramsden-trained Silvano gelding St. Tropez also announced himself as a Gold Cup contender.
Despite a slow early pace and being near the back of the field and wide, he travelled into the straight under a double handful before finding a strong finish under Anton Marcus to win comfortably. He started at odds of 15/20 and could possibly get into the Gold Cup with a light weight. The Justin Snaith-trained Master’s Eye and the Stan Elley-trained My World were the second and third highest merit rated horses behind St Tropez and respectively helped make it a one-two-three for Cape Town based trainers.
There was plenty for Port Elizabeth trainers to cheer about at the very well attended meeting, especially when the talented Alan Greef-trained Var colt Juan Two Three won the Listed Dahlia Plate over 1200m for two-year-olds in impressive style under Greg Cheyne.
Earlier in the Greyville meeting the Brett Crawford-trained Tiger Ridge filly Maybe Yes, who won last year’s KRA Fillies Guineas, was surprisingly sent to the front in a competitive Conditions Plate over 1400m. However, this didn’t bother her as she quickened just as well as usual under S’Manga Khumalo and won easily by four lengths. She was second best in at the weights, but it was still a fine performance and a point to note is that she sweated in the preliminaries so this shouldn’t be seen as a negative for her in the future.
The Dean Kannemeyer-trained Mambo In Seattle colt Mambo Mime was an impressive winner of the first race, a competitive Maiden Juvenile Plate over 1600m. This good looking sort was quite headstrong in the running and came from some way back under Stuart Randolph, so looks to have plenty of improvement in him.
By David Thiselton
Picture: Solid Speed winning the Highland Night Cup (Nkosi Hlophe)
