Summerveld trainer Kumaran Naidoo has always had notable success when raiding sand race meetings on the Highveld and this trend continued when he sent out two feature race winners at the Flamingo Park Festival on Saturday. He had three winners in all at Kimberley’s biggest race day.
Royal Zulu Guard (Nkosi Hlophe)
Naidoo put it down to simply identifying horses suited to sand and said, “The horses work on sand virtually every day and those with high actions are usually the ones who enjoy it.”
Naidoo once won the Listed Hampton Handicap over 1000m on the now defunct Vaal sand for three years in succession and that included a stable trifecta and a stable exacta respectively.
Nine of his horses were on a float which left Summerveld at three o’ clock last Friday morning and arrived in Kimberley 12 hours later.
The first of them to run was the formless four-year-old filly Show Me The Light. She raced in the first ever Workrider’s event at Flamingo, a Maiden over 1000m, and Kleinbooi Hlakabe, having his first race ride, got her up for second.
Sweet Vittoria then ran unplaced in a Maiden.
Northern Storm followed by finishing a narrow second in a MR 72 Handicap for fillies and mares over 1400m under Eric Saziso Ngwane.
Next up was Royal Zulu Guard, who had finished third when raiding Kimberley in March for a 1600m handicap. However, his best form is over a mile and this enigmatic sort finished unplaced in Saturday’s 1800m handicap.
However, there was plenty of confidence in Naidoo’s next runner, the Golden Sword four-year-old gelding Sabre Charge, who is owned by Alesh Naidoo. His two previous wins were both over 2400m and he was backed into 2/1 favourite for the R110,000 Non-Black Type The Department Of Economic Development and Tourism Diamond Stayers over 2200m. The out and out stayer loped along in relaxed fashion in the running and after improving position to within striking distance he stayed on strongly in the straight to win by 0,2 lengths under Lyle Hewitson.
Sabre Charge (Nkosi Hlophe)
Roy’s Magic, a disappointing type who had shown a return to form last time out off a much reduced merit rating, ran in the big one, the R200,000 RA Flamingo Mile, where he was 1kg under sufferance. He was not disgraced in sixth place.
Roy’s Marciano was next up in the R135,000 RA Sprint over 1000m. He went in with uninspiring form and duly started at 20/1. However, he has the high action Naidoo spoke about and this five-year-old Roy Moodley-owned Toreador gelding ran on strongly under Ngwane to win by 1,25 lengths.
Naidoo and Moodley then combined again to win a MR 66 Handicap over 1200m with the Argentinian-bred Tuscan, who was ridden by Hewitson.
A few hours earlier Naidoo and Moodley had combined to win a race at Greyville with Roy’s Yevahn.
Naidoo’s final runner at Flamingo Park was Roy’s Zaire, who finished unplaced in a MR 62 Handicap for fillies and mares over 1200m.
Naidoo’s outstanding start to the season, in which he has already sent out five winners, sees him the National Trainers log of the current one week old season.
By David Thiselton
