It was a day of high drama at Turffontein on Saturday, which illustrated the up and down nature of the Sport Of Kings.

The first highlight was provided by the imperious Legal Eagle, who stamped his status as one of the greatest milers in South African history by winning his sixth weight for age Grade 1 mile. In January he won South Africa’s most prestigious weight for age mile race, the L’Ormarin’s Queen’s Plate for the third time in succession and on Saturday made it three HF Oppenheimer Horse Chestnut Stakes in a row. He is now unbeaten in nine starts over the mile trip. In the Queen’s Plate he displayed his courage as he was out on his feet after chasing runaway leader Captain America and still had to fend off challenges from a number of horses flying from behind. On Saturday the margin of victory was less, only 0,25 lengths, but it was a less taxing race as Anton Marcus had timed his front-running performance perfectly and the line always looked likely to arrive before the gallant filly Nother Russia could overtake him. Marcus has been associated with a number of great milers whose records over that distance Legal Eagle has now surpassed. Both Variety Club and Empress Club won five Grade 1 miles, while Jet Master won four. Legal Eagle has won seven Grade 1s in all now for earnings of R11,523,375.

Legal Eagle (Liesl King)

Then came the day’s low point. The Tote favourite in the R2 million Grade 1 SA Classic over 1800m, the Paul Peter-trained Majestic Mamba had winner written all over him as he moved up from last place in the straight. He had been unbeaten in three previous starts over this distance. In his fourth career start in the Gauteng Guineas his exceptional turn of foot had never materialised. Maybe he had not liked the fast going that day. But on Saturday it was there in spades and it was perhaps what caused the incident that had the country’s horseracing fans horrified and then fraught with anxiety. Anthony Delpech had opted to make his run on the inside of the first horse he overtook, Hero’s Honour. He had no doubt eyed Greek Fire moving well up ahead and the latter was at least two lengths clear of Noble Secret to his outside. However, Greek Fire’s run began petering out just as Majestic Mambo was hitting top gear and suddenly there was nowhere to go. Majestic Mambo clipped heels as Delpech attempted to angle him sideways and faltered badly. The reigning SA Champion jockey was thrown out of the saddle and had no option but to fall feet first to the ground, a bad angle at that speed. He lay motionless and was reportedly in great pain when attended to, but was lucid and conscious. He was taken to Milpark Hospital for observation and CT scans revealed nothing serious at all. However, besides concussion, he complained of excruciatingly sore hands so was advised to stay overnight.

That was not only the drama in the SA Classic. The race produced one of the most unusual winners of all time in Lobo’s Legend. After punters had recovered from the shock of his victory they doffed their caps to Joe Soma, whose yard’s numbers had dwindled after the dispersal of a number of Mayfair Speculator horses. Lobo’s Legend had never run beyond 1200m in his five previous starts, had never gone around the turn before and had never run in a black type event before. To cap it all he had won only one of those five races and had finished lame in his last start. He did win his maiden by 8,5 lengths though, which was the reason for him having the eighth highest merit rating in the field of 97. New owners Larry Nestadt, Mark Currie, J Shill and JR van der Linden had faith in Soma but must have pursed their lips for a moment when they saw the speedster fighting for his head in the first few strides of the race. However, Muzi Yeni then settled him well and in the straight his speed coupled with his long stride saw him hitting the front at the 350m mark. His sire Trippi imparts speed but can also get them to stay and his dam, the Western Winter mare Gone Wild, won three times over 1800m. Lobo’s Legend was thus able to keep up a relentless gallop. The luckless Surcharge chased in vain, but the energy he had exerted to overcome yet another bad draw had taken its toll and it was clear he was never going to reach Lobo’s Legend.

However, the best story was still to come. Callan Murray switched the Triple Tiara-chasing Takingthepeace to the outside from last place in the Grade 1 Wilgerbosdrift SA Fillies Classic and the rangy Visionaire filly then produced a repeat of her Gauteng Fillies Guineas finish. She got up on the line. Mike de Kock’s son and assistant trainer Mathew had made it his mission to get young owners into the sport and Takingthepeace’s success is not only the stuff of dreams for himself, Murray Makepeace and Mike Shea but also for the sport as a whole. Takingthepeace is now heading for the R1 million SA Oaks and an unlikely Triple Tiara, which brings with it a R1 million bonus. It is a fairytale story which will build up to a crescendo on May 5 with three passionate and popular young racing enthusiasts on centre stage.

By David Thiselton

Frank Lloyd Wright produced one of the biggest Cape Town shocks since the start of the water crisis when the supposed certainty was beaten at 1-3 in the Glasfit Maden Juvenile at Kenilworth on Saturday.

Punters began backing the colt at 8-10 three days earlier but the money simply poured on once word started to spread – correctly or not – that Grant van Niekerk had had to turn his back on potentially lucrative Grade 1 chances to stay loyal to the two-year-old.

Grant Van Niekerk

Stable confidence was sky high but seemingly nobody had heard about Mr Crumford’s spectacular home work and the favourite, much to his supporters’ dismay, could never get in a blow and was beaten three lengths.  “He is a smart horse,” Van Niekerk insisted, “but he is still very green and immature.”

Mr Crumford, though, could be something special. Named by the Kieswetters after the way the colt’s trainer is addressed by a Greyville security officer, things didn’t go according to plan on his Durbanville debut – “He was T-boned coming out the gates,” explained Greg Cheyne.

Brett Crawford, thrilled and proud to have his first winner by Jackson – a horse he trained to win the 2012 Cape Derby and Daily News, added: “Today he did everything I thought he could but I wasn’t sure beforehand because they were talking up the other horse as if he couldn’t get beat.”

After he doubled up with Capaill two races later Crawford remarked that the stable’s horses had been a bit in-and-out in recent weeks, something that a legion of disappointed punters already knew to their cost. When asked why, the trainer answered: “I wish I knew. Had I done so, I would have fixed it!”

Spending Spree then underlined that in some cases at least the problem is still around by unaccountably flopping at 16-10 behind Too Phat To Fly in the Midas Handicap. Richard Fourie’s mount was completing a double for Glen Kotzen who was also on the mark with comfortable winner Margot Fonteyn.

With the CTS Yearling Sale starting on Thursday, not to mention the National 12 days later, trainers value winners even more than usual at the moment. Kotzen’s name is seldom out of the shop window but for Mike Robinson victories for African Messiah (given a ride by Corne Orffer that was as inspired as it was determined) and Hemero could not have come at a better time.

Publicity is nothing like as necessary for Andre Nel (his boss breeds most of hers) but Straat-Kind and Hemmingway were a welcome sign that his virus-ridden nightmare is nearing its end.

For Eric Sands, though, patience not publicity is his middle name. After Chris Gerber’s Rainbow Bridge (backed from 9-2 to 26-10 favourite) made a belated winning debut under Fourie in the Suburban Motor Spares Maiden, the Milnerton trainer said: “He got injured and hurt himself behind so I sent him to the farm. After three months he was still lame so I rested him for another six.”

By Michael Clower

There are no specific plans or targets for stud failure Legislate even though the 2014 Durban July winner is back in work at Summerveld with the rest of Justin Snaith’s KZN string.

Drakenstein racing manager Kevin Sommerville said: “He has now been back in training for about a month and it’s to see how things go with him. There are no plans to geld him and he seems to be a happy horse at the moment.”

The former Horse of the Year also won the 2014 Cape Derby and Daily News as well as the following year’s Rising Sun Gold Challenge and he still holds the record for the Kenilworth mile that he set in the 2014 Green Point.

Legislate (Snaith Racing)

But his first season at stud (2016) proved a commercial disaster. According to the NHA records his fertility was only 48% – 50 mares, 24 foals and 26 no returns.

Sommerville said: “Twenty or thirty years ago that sort of fertility might have been just about OK but nowadays it is not good enough for him to continue as a stallion. Commercial breeders simply can’t afford the risk of sending a mare to him in case they are forced to miss a year and in his second season he only had 15 to 20 mares.

“Maybe if he does well on the racecourse once more he could come back as a private stallion but even then he could never cover more than 20 or so mares in a season.”

Certain aspects of the horse’s physique apparently lie at the root of Legislate’s poor fertility including, crucially, unusually small testicles. He stood at a fee of R20 000.

Richard Fourie, who rode Legislate to most of his triumphs, has been fined R 7 500 for hitting another rider in what the NHA calls “an altercation” in the jockeys’ room at Durbanville last month. Fourie is normally a pretty calm individual but this happened after he suffered interference on the fancied but unplaced King Of Aces. Fourie admitted his guilt at a hearing last week.

Smart Call proved most disappointing on her return in a Listed race at Kempton on Saturday. She started 7-2 joint favourite and raced in second but she failed to quicken when the race began in earnest and managed only seventh of ten. It was her first run on the all-weather but she had been working well on a similar surface at Newmarket.

Trained by Sir Michael Stoute, the 2016 Met winner last year ran six times in four different countries – all in Group 1 or 2 races, finishing third at York and fourth at both Royal Ascot and in a Deauville Group 1.

By Michael Clower

Cape classic form stood up at the SA Champions Season curtain raiser meeting on the Greyville turf yesterday in what turned out be an encouraging day for KZN horses.

Brett Crawford

In the Grade 3 Byerley Turk over 1400m the Brett Crawford-trained CTS Mile winner and Cape Classic runner up, Undercover Agent, found the box seat from a good draw of three under Corne Orffer. Meanwhile, the Paul Lafferty-trained Judpot gelding Sniper Shot had run five wide around horses from the widest draw of all to race on Undercover Agent’s flank. When they turned for home Undercover Agent, who returned odds of 26/10, went down the inside and hit the front at the 300m mark, but 12/1 shot Sniper Shot, despite his earlier exertions, was going with him. Undercover Agent, a Captain Al colt bred by Moutonshoek, pulled away in the closing stages to win by two lengths from Sniper Shot. The winner’s stablemate White River ran on strongly from near the back for a 3,25 length third, a head clear of the Wendy Whitehead-trained Hard To Play, who ran on well after being positioned on the rail near the back from a pole position draw. The favourite, CTS 1200 runner up Kasimir, was well positioned in midfield but found little extra in the straight and finished fifth.

Peter Muscatt, assistant to Crawford, described Undercover Agent as “still a big baby” but believed once he furnished he would go further. He added, “The Daily News 2000 is probably a bit beyond him now, but something like the Champions Cup might be an option. But first we will see how he goes in the next leg (Daisy Guineas).

Lafferty’s assistant Roy Waugh said, “Sniper Shot has been a different horse since gelding. Let’s hope he gets a draw in the Guineas.”

In the Grade 3 Umzimkhulu Stakes over 1400m the Dennis Drier-trained Paddock Stakes runner up Lady In Black looked a picture in the parade ring and turned it on well in the straight to overtake the Prix du Cap winner Elusive Heart. However, the Wendy Whitehead-trained 20/1 shot Twice As Smart was going with her. Lady In Black, a Grade 1-winning Dynasty filly who was giving Twice As Smart 6kg, found extra to beat the latter by head under Sean Veale. Elusive Heart ran a 2,6 length third receiving 4,5kg from the winner. Sorceress and Fish River were next best.

The Drier and Veale combination had a good day as the once much touted Hack Green bounced back to his best to beat a good field in a Pinnacle Stakes event over 1100m.

By David Thiselton

Justin Snaith’s long-awaited first two-year-old winner of the season looks like finally materialising shortly after noon tomorrow when Frank Lloyd Wright stands out in the opening Glasfit Maiden Juvenile at Kenilworth.

The former champion trainer, still over R5 million clear of Sean Tarry at the top of the national log, has run 16 juveniles in 29 Cape Town races with ten making the frame. Significantly, though, only two of his runners started favourite and he didn’t have a single runner in the Met day Listed race that he used to farm year after year.

Grant Van Niekerk

Frank Lloyd Wright, though, has all the makings of a nailed-on winner and the American architect after whom the horse is named could hardly have designed a more suitable race for Grant van Niekerk’s mount. None of his four opponents that have raced has finished closer than sixth and only one of the seven newcomers is priced in single figures.

In addition there is considerable stable confidence behind the R3.25 million Captain Al and Jonathan Snaith suggests that punters include him in all relevant bets, adding: “He is a serious horse and he will take a power of beating.”

Certainly there was a lot to like about his debut run at  the end of February. He started joint second favourite in a field of 14 and, despite running green, he was only beaten a head by the experienced Sailor Sam. Two of those behind have won since to frank the form.

He opened at what looked a reasonable 8-10 with World Sports Betting on Wednesday and has since tightened a fraction to 15-20. Second favourite at 6-1 is Machiavelli, a Silvano newcomer in the Shirtliff colours and trained by Candice Bass-Robinson whose two-year-olds are particularly strong this season. Mr Crumford (9-1), squeezed out at the start when only sixth of eight at Durbanville, is the only other in single figures and he wasn’t fancied on debut.

There is no Snaith runner in the other juvenile race, the Suburban Motor Spares Maiden, but with Vaughan Marshall in such form, it could pay to go for newcomer Sherwood Forest a, R200 000 Philanthropist colt out of a half-sister to the top sprinter (in England and Dubai as well as South Africa) National Colour. Perhaps significantly this one carries the same colours as One World and Zinedine and is 2-1 favourite with fellow first-timer Rainbow Bridge next at 9-2.

Many punters will be looking for something to floor Legal Eagle, particularly at 4-10, in the Horse Chestnut Stakes after the way he ran in the Sun Met. But he has never been beaten in eight runs over a mile and it seems folly to bet against him over this distance until he meets his Waterloo.

By Michael Clower