The Sean Tarry-trained six-year-old gelding Legal Eagle confirmed himself one of the great milers in South African history on Saturday when prevailing in one of the most thrilling finishes the prestigious Grade 1 weight-for-age L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate had ever witnessed under jockey great Anton Marcus.

In last place was a horse called It Is Written and the footnotes will not mention the massive impact he had on the race.

It was theatre from start to finish and will have racing purists debating, while the socialites who had previously misunderstood the latter community’s passion for the sport might now tip their hats in appreciation.

Trainer Justin Snaith said before the race that It Is Written had been entered to make up the numbers and give the owners some fun, but his trademark impish smile was a giveaway. He had something up his sleeve and from the off it became clear that It Is Written had been put in to ensure a good pace. It very nearly proved a master stroke. On the other hand It Is Written might now be regarded as a swear word in the Brett Crawford yard as his  presence possibly cost their gallant warrior Captain America the race.

Captain America’s regular pilot Corné Orffer made his intentions clear as he made a bee-line for the front from his wide draw of nine. However, Brandon May, jumping from draw six on It Is Written, had been issued with a similar plan. The consequence was the big horse Captain America had to use a bit more fuel than the connections would have liked in order to reach the first turn in front.

Meanwhile, Legal Eagle had jumped beautifully from draw two and Marcus would have been delighted to see what was happening ahead. It Is Written had ranged up to Captain America’s flank on the turn. Orffer looked around, probably with considerable irritation. A racehorse’s natural inclination when alongside another horse is to race and in racing parlance this occurrence, if happening too early in the running, is known as “cutting each other’s throats”. Orffer’s snap decision was to give Captain America a bit more rein to stay out in front. More precious fuel used up.

Marcus could afford to gear Legal Eagle down into the cruising speed at which he is most comfortable.

Captain America opened up a two length lead on It Is Written. Legal Eagle was a further three lengths back.

Snaith’s stable elect, Winter Triple Crown hero African Night Sky, was sitting behind Legal Eagle, but unfortunately for him his rank outsider stablemate Fifty Cents had pinched the rail on his inside. African Night Sky thus had to race one wide without cover the whole way.

Vodacom  Durban July winner Marinaresco was provided with cover behind African Night Sky, but jockey Aldo Domeyer preferred to leave a two length gap, an indication of how strong the pace was. However, this led to Silicone Valley switching outward from the rail halfway around the turn to get into African Night Sky’s slipstream. In the Queen’s Plate no quarter is given, but this manoeuvre will probably have landed jockey Donavan Dillon in hot water as he was not the required distance ahead of Marinaresco and hampered him.

Further back in the running were Captain America’s fellow Grade 1-winning stablemate Sail South, the unheralded Snaith-trained Copper Force, one of last year’s best three-year-olds Gold Standard and two Grade 1-winning raiders from the Highveld, Hat Puntano and the slow-starting Deo Juvente.

Orffer had no option but to go for home at the top of the straight. It Is Written began crying enough, his role on the centre stage completed. By the 400m mark Captain America was at least five lengths clear of Legal Eagle, who had skipped two lengths clear of the rest. However, Marcus, ever the consummate professional, stuck to his game plan. He began driving as they passed the 400m pole, but only drew the sword 150 metres later. He gave the odds-on favourite his first crack of the whip passing the 200 metre pole and at exactly the same instant Captain America, still five lengths clear, began tiring. Marcus stuck to his familiar waving-the-whip-and-driving style, with a crack given occasionally in rhythm. Legal Eagle began closing the gap and by the 100m mark it became clear he was going to get there. However, a new threat was emerging as Marinaresco, Sail South and Copper Force were all flying out of the chasing pack.

Legal Eagle held on by 0,4 lengths from the low-flying Copper Force, with Captain America, Sail South and Marinaresco narrowly beaten in third fourth and fifth respectively.

Jockey Marcus was overcome with emotion in the post-race interviews as he spared a thought for his former racing boss, Markus Jooste, who has had a downturn in fortunes since resigning from the listed company Steinhoff.

Jooste’s Mayfair Speculators were forced to sell Legal Eagle in the build up to the Queen’s Plate.

Legal Eagle’s chief owner is now the deserving Braam van Huysteen, who had lived a modest life while building his multi-million dollar Tekkie Town business on a solid foundation. However, this decade the dividends have been reaped. He maintained his down-to-earth demeanour while buying horses for a range of trainers and had never before won a Grade 1 race.

Van Huysteen revelled in the moment together with new part-owners Hedley McGrath and Van Huysteen’s Brisbane-based racing advisor Billy Henderson.

Among the debateable points will be how costly both Silcone Valley’s and Legal Eagle’s outward shifts in the closing stages would have been to fifth-placed Marinaresco, and that is not to mention Silicone Valley’s earlier indiscretion. However, under the latest rules, there was no thought of an objection.

Next year Legal Eagle, an Avontuur Stud-bred son of Greys Inn, will attempt to equal the immortal Pocket Power’s record of four successive Queen’s Plate wins.

Gaynor Rupert of Drakenstein Stud will always be celebrated as the lady who has revived the Queen’s Plate as a social occasion as well as a great race. In its current two-day format, the meeting can justifiably be compared to England’s Glorious Goodwood festival.

Fittingly, Glorious Goodwood are now sponsors of the Grade 2 Peninsula Handicap on the Queen’s Plate card. This race was won by the Glen Kotzen-trained three-year-old Eyes Wide Open.

Later, the Snaith-trained three-year-old filly Oh Susanna won the Grade 1 Cartier Paddock Stakes over 1800m and is on her way to becoming South African’s version of her legendary paternal half-sister Zenyatta, America’s most celebrated female racer this century. Their father Street Cry passed on a massive stride and it was the stuff of fairytales when Oh Susanna passed the line 1,5 lengths clear with a celebrating Grant van Niekerk standing in the irons adorned in Drakenstein blue-and-white racing silks.

By David Thiselton

“This is what racing is all about,” declared Anton Marcus after landing a seventh L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate at Kenilworth on Saturday.

The four-time champion was talking more about all Gaynor Rupert and her team have done to make the day a memorable occasion but for all those watching, not just on course but on TV around the world, this race was the sort of inspiring stuff that lifts the sport to its very heights.

A carefully, and skilfully, thought-out plan to beat the unbeatable was played out to the full and it so nearly came off. With a furlong to run the long-striding Captain America was still over three lengths clear with Legal Eagle under pressure and making ground but not fast enough, or so it seemed.

It was only well inside the last 50m, when the leader was visibly tiring and several others were bearing down on him like the hounds of hell closing in on a kill, that Legal Eagle looked sure to win the race for the third successive year, justify odds of 7-10 and stretch his unbeaten mile run to eight.

“I’ve got a lot of respect for Captain America but it’s a fine line,” said Marcus. “You can’t challenge him too early but if you let him slip you are not going to get to him. I wasn’t sure [that I was going to] but I have a lot of faith in my horse and I was hoping.”

In the end it was 50-1 shot Copper Force who snatched second but Corne Orffer, who had ridden such a bold and imaginative race, reckoned he might well have won had he been allowed to dictate the way he had planned.

“It Is Written came up to me early and as a result I had to conserve my horse’s energy a bit longer than I wanted,” he explained. “If he had left me alone I might just have done it.”

Sean Tarry, confirming that a third tilt at the Sun Met is next for the winner, paid tribute to both horses, saying: “Captain America did everything right and it was a massive effort by Legal Eagle to come and fetch him.”

The Avontuur-bred six-year-old is by the 2004 Durban July winner Greys Inn and new owner Braam van Huyssteen was understandably thrilled (“What a privilege to be here to win my first Group 1”) as was part-owner Billy Henderson who had flown from Australia for the race.

The bookmakers reacted yesterday with Betting World pushing out Legal Eagle from 3-1 to 15-4 joint favourite with Last Winter for the Sun Met. Marinaresco’s price has more than halved to 4-1, Sail South has been cut from 33-1 to 16-1, Peninsula winner Eyes Wide Open from 80-1 to 16-1 and Copper Force from 66-1 to 25-1. Drifters include African Night Sky (6-1 to 17-2), Gold Standard (15-2 to 10-1) and Nother Russia (12-1 to 16-1).

Legal Eagle carried the colours of Markus Jooste when second in the last two Mets and Brett Crawford, who beat him with Whisky Baron 12 months ago, is already planning how to do it again.

He said: “We tried to steal the race on Saturday and it ended up costing us second place but I thought it was the only way we could be beat Legal Eagle over a mile. We already know that he is vulnerable over ten furlongs and on 27 January we won’t have to ride Captain America like we did this time.”

Crawford, incidentally, confirmed that the Hong Kong-bound Edict Of Nantes has already left his stables and will be scratched from the Met.

By Michael Clower

Candice Bass-Robinson and Aldo Domeyer have long maintained that Dutch Philip is a sprinter and the What A Winter colt went quite some way to proving their point when he dropped back from the 1 400m of the Cape Classic to take second to Silicone Valley in the World Sports Betting Cape Merchants (a Grade 2 handicap) at the beginning of last month and it will be fascinating to see how he fares against top sprinters like Trip To Heaven and Search Party in the Grade 2 Khaya Stables Diadem Stakes at Kenilworth on Saturday 13 January.

Dutch Philip is comfortably the highest rated of the four three-year-olds in the race although he is 4.5kg below Trip To Heaven who was a most convincing winner of this 1 200m race last year. But Search Party and Sergeant Hardy are officially considered only 1.5kg above him. Search Party was third in last year’s race and second in the Grade 1 Mercury Sprint in July while Sergeant Hardy won the Listed Southeaster Sprint just before Christmas.

The race, which has been won by some real stars in the past, will again see some hot competition with Grade 1 winners Talktothestars and Always In Charge also in the line-up.

Khaya Stables has also raced a number of stars including Capetown Noir who won both the Cape Guineas and the Cape Derby. Its present big name horse is Last Winter who is second favourite for the Sun Met.

Those on course will be eligible for a number of lucky prize draws, including a chance to win tickets for the Met. Call 021-797 6037 for hospitality inquiries.

By Michael Clower

Final field and draws for the Khaya Stables Diadem Stakes (Grade 2) over 1200m at Kenilworth:

1	12	Trip To Heaven		60	118	T A	R Fourie	Sean Tarry
2	8	Search Party		60	112	A	C Orffer	Brett Crawford
3	1	Sergeant Hardy		59	112	A	B Fayd’Herbe	Justin Snaith
4	16	Always In Charge		59	108	BA	A Marcus	Vaughan Marshall
5	14	Brutal Force		59	108	BA	M Seidl	Joey Ramsden
6	4	Tevez		59	108	A	R Khathi	Candice Bass-Robinson
7	5	Talktothestars		59	106	TBA	G Behr	Coenie de Beer
8	1	Attenborough		59	104	A	D Dillon	Joey Ramsden
9	11	Bishop’s Bounty		59	101	A	G van Niekerk	Justin Snaith
10	13	Lord Balmoral (AUS)		59	94	BA	M Byleveld	Vaughan Marshall
11	10	Macduff (AUS)		59	94	BA	……………	Joey Ramsden
12	3	Rock Of Africa		59	90	BA	A Andrews	Vaughan Marshall
13	6	Wonderwall		56.5	100	T A	*L Hewitson	Sean Tarry
14	7	Dutch Philip		55.5	109	A	A Domeyer	Candice Bass-Robinson
15	2	Mujaafy (AUS)		55.5	92	A	A Delpech	Mike de Kock
16	9	Barrack Street		55.5	91	T A	……………	Sean Tarry
Same Trainer – Not Coupled on Tote
(1,13,16) (3,9) (4,10,12) (5,8,11) (6,14)

So, just how good is Snowdance? Stable companion Oh Susanna, best of the rest when Snowdance annihilated the Fillies Guineas field, put the star older fillies to bed in Saturday’s Cartier Paddock Stakes.

Justin Snaith, winning his fourth Paddock in 11 seasons, said: “I think you know the answer but I did say at the time of the Fillies Guineas that if anything could beat Snowdance it was this one.”

Snowdance now goes for the Klawervlei Majorca on Met day but seemingly there will be no rematch with Oh Susanna. “It is not up to me – it will be a team decision – but going back to a mile wouldn’t be the right thing to do. Oh Susanna will go to Durban.”

Grant van Niekerk, who also won this in Gaynor Rupert’s colours on Inara three years ago, said: “I was basically a passenger. When I pulled her out she quickened clear and she kept going. If anything had come to her she would have quickened again.”

He and Snaith each won a third of the 18 races over the two-day meeting and he said: “When you are riding for Snaith Racing on big days you come with confidence because you know the horses will be ready.”

The trainer responded, saying: “Grant has a quirk about himself – a certain way that he handles things – but he is such a good young jockey and horses run for him.”

They certainly do even though his all-consuming will to win sometimes takes precedence over keeping them straight and, as a result, he is almost as familiar with the boardroom as he is with the winner’s box. He got another ten days for interference on Friday and has resolved to bite the bullet straightaway, starting the suspension on Wednesday. He was also fined R2 500 for raising his arm in triumph before he reached the line on Oh Susanna.

Second-placed Lady In Black, fourth to Snowdance in the Fillies Guineas, will also miss the Majorca. “She needs further so I didn’t enter her,” Dennis Drier explained.

Nightingale ran way below form and finished with only two behind her, with Anthony Delpech reporting that she was not striding out properly. Gimme Six (11^th) was squeezed early in the straight while Wind Chill (eighth) lost a front shoe.

By Michael Clower

…after what is going to be fantastic racing at the L’Ormarin’s Queen’s Plate meeting at Kenilworth on Friday and Saturday.

Abashiri is the selection in the London News, which is a conditions race over 1800m. He has been showing glimpses of his old self this season. Last time out in the Summer Cup he was dropped out to last from a wide draw and proved too be too far back. He sliced through the field with that giant stride of his, but understandably ran out of steam in the closing stages having made up a lot of ground. He now has a plum draw of two and Gavin Lerena is up. The course and distance is ideal and he is second best in at the weights. Matador Man is the best weighted horse. The tough Turffontein Standside 1800m might stretch him, but he is much better drawn than he was when disappointing in the Victory Moon Stakes over course and distance. He should find cover from this draw and can then use his powerful finish to good affect in the straight, as he did when third over this trip at Greyville in the Grade 1 Champions Cup.

The dark horse in the race is the classy Irish-bred filly Cascapedia. She is officially not well weighted, especially as she is in reality still a three-year-old having been bred in Ireland. However, she looks full of class and was impressive over course and distance last time out when stretching away to win easily. She has a good draw and champion jockey Anthony Delpech is up. The Elmo Effect has an impressive stride and has won twice over this trip. He has an ideal pole position draw for his style and should be staying on strongly in the straight, so could be good value for a place. Pagoda ran a good fourth from a similar draw to this tricky one in the Summer Cup. He needs to be well drawn as he does not have good gate-speed but he will be staying on. He is 2kg better off with Coral Fever, who beat him by a short-head in the Summer Cup. Coral Fever was drawn 19 out of 19 in the Summer Cup, so can earn again here from a better draw of eight. Brazuca ran a bit disappointingly in the Summer Cup from a tough draw.

He has a better drawn here and runs well fresh, but it going to be tough giving 2kg to Abashiri and 2,5kg to Matador Man. Girl On The Run won the Victory Moon from a handy position and made a bold bid from the front in the Summer Cup. She can’t be written off from a fair draw. Bi Pot will also relish the course and distance. French Navy is a Grade 1 winner over this course and distance and can’t be ignored, although his last win was two years ago.

In the Listed Sea Cottage Stakes over 1800m, Royal Crusade and Majestic Mambo as two-time winners have to give 2kg to the Investec Dingaans runner up Seerite. However, Royal Crusade caught the eye last time as one who switches off well and then when asked the question shows a fine turn of foot and a powerful action. Seerite is a long-striding sort who will love the course and distance having flown for a narrow second from a wide draw in the Dingaans. Majestic Mambo stretched away last time to remain unbeaten in two starts, both over this trip. However, he does have a tricky draw to overcome. Haralan County went close in the Secretariat Stakes over 1400m, although he was receiving 7,5 kg from the classy winner Surcharge. He is progressive and should enjoy this trip. Alshibaa has regular Mike de Kock rider Callan Murray up, but his Dingaans run was disappointing and he still has a bit to prove.

By David Thiselton