It will be a long time if ever that apprentice Jabu Jacobs forgets his first winner. He had been close on a number of occasions, none closer than on Winter’s Coming when touched off by stable companion Q The Music last month.

That had been mostly a straightforward race, the winner just that fraction better. Many would have dumped the youngster but Byron Forster, KZN assistant to Andre Nel, kept faith with young Jacobs, although mid-way through the race he may have been having second thoughts.

Yesterday at Greyville it was a completely different scenario. Trailing the field by a couple of lengths for much of the race, most observers will have written Winter’s Coming off to concentrate on what was unfolding at the head of affairs.

Winter’s Coming (Candiese Marnewick)

Yuzae Ramzan, also hunting his first winner, had The Poet wide for much of the exchanges but struck for home in what looked to be a winning move.

Jacobs at this stage was in all sorts of trouble with a full tank of petrol and seemingly nowhere to go.

First he tried outside, that gap closed, then he tried the middle and that door was shut in his face, in desperation, he pull off the heels of the traffic, switched inside and headed for the line.

It was heart-stopping stuff but Winter’s Coming got out of the pocket in the nick of time and won going away. The Poet was game in second and Ramzan will have to wait another day for his first.

In stark contrast was the end-to-end victory by Storm Ruler, apprentice Jason Gates making all on Alyson Wright’s five-year-old.

The talented Gates has had many run-ins with authority and at one stage was banned by the stipendiary stewards from races around the turn as he was seemingly impervious to instruction, riding with gay abandon with no thought to life or limb, his or that of his opponents.

The penny appears to have dropped. He is no slouch in the saddle and if he can keep it all together he has a future as he appears to be natural light-weight.

At Fairview, Justin Snaith’s decision to let Magnificent Seven take his chances in the G-Bets Algoa Cup (Listed) in spite of the fact that any outside travellers to Port Elizabeth will have to serve quarantine before returning home after an out-break of African Horse Sickness in the area.

It was a calculated gamble but it paid off handsomely although it was a close-run thing. Richard Fourie produced Magnificent Seven with a perfectly time run but with local Wild Briar and Teaque Gould stuck to him like glue. The two fought head-and-head over the final 100m with the favourite prevailing narrowly.

By Andrew Harrison