It is nine years since Sun Classique, and 14 since Sport’s Chestnut, but the Mike Bass stable has its sights firmly set on Cape Fillies Classic victory. This time the bullet is Silver Mountain.
This half-sister to Helderberg Blue cost R1.3 million but the way she won the Rugby 5 Maiden Juvenile at Kenilworth on Saturday suggests she is going to be worth every rand. She took it up over two furlongs from home and strode away to win in a manner far more conclusive than even her three-and-a-half length margin would suggest.
Aldo Domeyer said: “She has come on by leaps and bounds and, on what she showed today, she could win anything from five, six or seven furlongs. This was probably the easiest winner of my career.”
Maybe he was a bit carried away! But the rather more feet-on-the-ground Candice Robinson, who has seen Hammie’s Hooker, Lanner Falcon and Inara all agonisingly beaten into second in the last three seasons, is also eyeing the Avontuur-sponsored classic. “This looks to be a really smart filly,” she said. “I am very optimistic about her future.”
This winner started at 15-20 but on a day of upsets the Bass stable also struck with 16-1 two-year-old winners Elysian Park and Marinaresco to leave Grant van Niekerk only three short of his century.
Vaughan Marshall is optimistic that he is getting on top of the respiratory virus that caused him to scratch all nine runners at the last Cape Town meeting and Bernard Kantor’s Irish bred Roman Perfection underlined his point by springing a 25-1 shock against older horses in the Soccer 6 Maiden.
Marshall said: “It started two months ago. We eased up for ten days and, while scratching the lot was a drastic step, I think it was the right thing to do because the horses are running better now.”
The winner provided an overdue change of luck for Ossie Noach who had ridden only one previous winner this season and leaves for Hong Kong next week.
He said: “This will be my first time there and I am going for a year. I will ride work and see how it goes.”
Richard Fourie, runner-up in the championship last season, has been repeatedly ramming home what might have been had injury not sidelined him for so many weeks in the early part of the campaign – and he did it again with a Snaith Racing double, scoring on convincing winner Paolo and getting two-year-old A Time To Dream up in the final two strides of the concluding handicap. He needs just four more to reach his hundred.
By Michael Clower
Picture: Mike Bass (Nkosi Hlophe)
