Joey Ramsden, at home recuperating from an operation on his shoulder, had just the tonic he needed when Dynasty’s Blossom won in a common canter at Kenilworth on Saturday.
Victory in the Birthday Bonanza Handicap was important because the Dynasty filly carries the famous Magnier dark blue and cost a whopping R4.5 million. True, she only raced off 78 but Robert Khathi led a furlong and a half from home and thereafter his most vigorous efforts were devoted to looking round to see where the hell the opposition had got to.
Joey Ramsden
Assistant Ricardo Sobotker said: “We put blinkers on her two races back because she had been disappointing but she probably doesn’t need them. It was more that she hadn’t strengthened up and it is only in the last couple of months that she has started to do so. Today she showed how good she is and there is a lot more to come.”
Alec Foster, sick for much of the last week, also had a victory tonic when his heavily supported homebred Racine made a winning debut under a confident M.J. Byleveld in the Maiden Juvenile Fillies. “She is a very nice sort who would prefer 1 200m,” commented Vaughan Marshall.
Dean Kannemeyer had his first Cape Town two-year-old winner of the season 35 minutes later when 6-1 newcomer Savea (Grant Behr) got the better of the more experienced Sailor Sam inside the last half furlong.
“I hadn’t tried him here or at Durbanville but he had shown a lot of natural speed at home,” said the trainer.
Richard Fourie (“The racing Gods were in my favour and I am on the right horses which makes a big difference”) stole much of the show with two winners for Glen Kotzen plus a last-gasp success on Commander Bond for Eric Sands who was convinced his rider was coming from too far back!
Golden Wine, the first of the two Kotzen winners, made all the running to earn a reprieve from owner-breeder Peter de Beyer who said: “She was on her final notice. Some horses respond to love but some more to threats and I’d said that if she didn’t win today she was going to PE!”
Seemingly Bwana also needs handling of a special nature – he pretty much expects everybody to doff their caps and call him sir – and both Corner Orffer and Brett Crawford (“he is not an easy horse”) have to treat him with kid gloves. But he has the necessary talent and he made it two out of three in the Riverside Boutique Hotel Handicap.
Some of those who religiously supported Grant van Niekerk in race after race ran out of ammunition before he finally got one on the board on Red Mars in the Snowdance colours in the last. The Met day maestro rode four favourites, two of them odds-on shots, and commented philosophically: “It just shows you have to take the bad days with the good ones and in the end I was just glad to get a winner.”
By Michael Clower
