Chevauchee is to be upped to feature company after displaying her potential when chasing home Varumba in the Racing.It’s A Rush Conditions Plate at Kenilworth on Saturday.
Despite a five-month absence, a trip too short for her and without a gallop worth the name, the Australian-bred was narrowing the gap all the way to the line and an impressed Sean Veale said: “Over another 200m I would have run the winner down. This is a very nice filly and I don’t know why she’s not in Durban.”
A delighted Ridgemont manager Craig Carey, busy fielding texts from Brett Crawford at Turffontein, said: “He now wants to aim her at a couple of features including the Olympic Duel on May 21.”
It will be interesting to see what the filly can do when she is tried over a trip commensurate with her pedigree – she is by a dual Derby winner out of a daughter of an Irish Oaks winner.
Brett Crawford (Liesl King)
Veale was also involved in an objection to the All To Come Maiden and reckoned he was robbed when the stipes ruled against him. The close circuit pictures suggested he was making a fuss about nothing because he never stopped riding Imperial Dancer and, even though he was only beaten five millimetres, Aldo Domeyer on 4-1 favourite Sherlock had his whip in the correct hand and the interference was minimal.
However it looked very different on the head-on in the boardroom. This showed the action all the way up the straight with Imperial Dancer the early villain, taking the winner several horses wide. In the final furlong, though, it was Sherlock who hung in, seemingly taking Veale’s mount with him.
Chief stipe Ernie Rodrigues said: “We have to be sure that the second would have won if we are to change the result and we took the view that the two horses moved in independently.”
It would do wonders for public relations, particularly among punters, if the boardroom films were shown on the close circuit and Tellytrack, preferably with a stipe explaining what happened.
Let no-one say this can’t be done. The technology is already in place and there is enough computer genius in the employ of the operators to make it work. There might not be time to show it in Tellytrack’s busy live schedule but there is more than enough during the late night replays and on-course between races.
Vaughan Marshall and his stable jockey won three of the last four with M.J.Byleveld giving a brilliant display of waiting in front on 16-1 shot Variance in the mile handicap, keeping enough up his sleeve to be able to kick beyond recall halfway up the straight. “It was a very clever ride,” said assistant trainer Adele Alsop. “He caught them a bit flat-footed and the others then had too much work to do.”
Who is to say that they would not also have won the opening Maiden Juvenile had William Longsword not been scratched with a ‘stacked leg’ (Ms Alsop: “It’s a virus – the leg swells up. The stables around us have got it”).
A New Dawn had no problem justifying odds of 1-4 but he wasn’t that convincing even though Joey Ramsden rates him (“a smashing horse, looking for this trip and more”) and is considering a crack at next month’s Langerman.
Four-year-old Words Of Wisdom avoided banishment to Kimberley’s big hole by springing a 20-1 surprise under Heavelon van der Hoven in race four. “It’s tough in Cape Town when the younger horses are coming through so we had thought of sending her to a weaker centre,” said Piet Steyn.
Part owner Jaco Reverchon, a Cape Town architect, had his first winner when Robert Khathi sprang a 35-1 shock on the Paddy Kruyer-trained Foxy Princess and tool-making boss Jason Coenraad got the same buzz when Grant Behr on Elusive Rose fought off all-comers four races later.
By Michael Clower
