Paul Peter regards his unbeaten three-year-old colt Majestic Mambo as probably the best horse he has ever trained and is still “mind-boggled” that he secured him for a mere R40,000 at the CTS Ready to Run Sale presented by Lanzerac.

Mike de Kock also looks to have a top filly on his hands in the Irish-bred Cascapedia.

On Sunday Majestic Mambo made it three from three when winning the Listed Sea Cottage Stakes over 1800m on Turffontein Standside by a comfortable 2,35 lengths under Anthony Delpech.

He sat near the back before showing a fine turn of foot and putting the race to bed some way out beating two well regarded Mike de Kock-trained horses in Royal Crusade and Alshibaa at level weights

Peter said the beauty about this horse was his magnificent acceleration as he could be dropped out to the back and was always going to make up the ground.

He will now go straight into the Gauteng Triple Crown classics without have any more preparation outings.

The first of these races is the Grade 2 Betting World Gauteng Guineas on March 3.

His wins to date have all been over 1800m.

On debut he was ridden by French jockey Thierry Thulliez in one of the International Jockeys Challenge races on Turffontein Inside. After losing two lengths at the start he showed an effortless turn of foot in the straight to win by 5,5 lengths, despite having been ignored in the market and starting at odds of 11/1.

Second time out in a Novice Handicap in a night race on the Standside track, he was dropped out and came wide into the straight, although he did have cover. He then showed exceptional acceleration again to win by four lengths.

Peter, asked whether he would find the 1600m Guineas trip to sharp said, “We initially thought it would be but Anthony Delpech said it would not be a problem as he has such good acceleration.”

On Saturday Delpech apparently deliberately sent him for home too early to test his suitability to the mile and he responded instantly.

Peter added, “He is a very easy horse to train as he shows so much ability. He takes a lot of work, but has a good appetite and eats up well and he has been nice and sound.”

Regarding his temperament, Peter said, “He is massive and knows his strength, so he does bully us a little bit … but he is entitled to!”

The Moutonshoek-bred Mambo In Seattle colt went through the ring unsold at the Cape Premier Yearling Sale and a “buyer’s levy” was not paid against him, so he does not qualify for the lucrative US$500,000 CTS Mile on Sun Met day.

However, this could be a blessing in disguise for Peter, who did not want to mess the horse around at this stage by travelling him down to Cape Town.

Peter does all the selecting and buying for his chief client, the Hyperpaint Syndicate.

His method is to attempt to look at every single horse on a sale and make comments, and only then does he check the pedigrees.

Majestic Mambo made a big impression on him at the Ready To Run breeze ups.

He said, “I loved his action and the way he moved and he was such a nice looking, big and imposing individual.”

Peter will likely be able to keep Delpech aboard as Wilgerbosdrift and Mauritzfontein Stud, who retain him, look unlikely to have a horse running in the male Johannesburg classics this season.

Peter also goes into the Triple Tiara with a fine chance of success as he trains the crack Tiger Ridge filly Folk Dance.

He was impressed by her “athletic” looks at the National Yearling Sale and also has a high regard for her breeders, Wilgerbosdrift and Mauritzfontein Studs.

He secured her for R100,000.

Peter is loath to put her ahead of his classy five-year-old mare, Fort Ember, just yet. The latter ended last season by winning the Grade 2 Gold Bracelet over 2000m at Greyville and in her last run finished a fine second in Johannesburg’s biggest race, the Sansui Summer Cup over 2000m. She also won the Grade 3 Flamboyant Stakes over 1600m at Greyville last season. Fort Ember will be targeted at the Grade 1 Premier’s Champion Challenge.

Folk Dance, like Majestic Mambo, has a fine action and tremendous acceleration. She has won four out of six starts, including the Grade 3 Fillies Mile on Summer Cup day. Interestingly, she beat Aurelia Cotta at level weights by three lengths in the latter race which compares to Majestic Mambo’s 3,15 length defeat of this same horse on Saturday on weight for age terms.

Folk Dance will also go straight into the Triple Tiara without another preparation outing. She will be hard to beat in the first leg, the Grade 2 Wilgerbosdrift Gauteng Fillies Guineas. The furthest she has been to date is a mile, but as she is out of a half-sister to the dam of Summer Cup winner Dancewiththedevil and might stay further.

Peter has 100 horses in his yard at the moment and is enjoying his best season to date. He is lying in sixth place on the National Trainers log and has already had 47 wins at a strike rate of 16,91%.

Mike de Kock is the only trainer who has a higher strike rate than Peter out of the top ten trainers on the log.

De Kock has been turning out well-bred horses in conveyor belt-like fashion this season.

On Sunday his Irish-bred daughter of High Chaparral slammed the boys in the Grade 3 London News Stakes over 1800m on Turffontein Standside. She is six months younger than her four-year-old contemporaries, being Northern Hemisphere-bred, yet beat the Triple Crown hero by 1,4 lengths under Delpech on Sunday despite only receiving 3kg. She has won five from six starts to date and is improving all the time, so has a promising career ahead of her. Form Bloodstock secured her for  ‎£191,165 at the Goffs Orby Yearling Sale of 2015 on behalf of Mauritzfontein Stud. Her dam Janoubi is an unraced horse by Dansili and is a half-sister to Radevore (Generous), who won a Group 2 and a Group 3 in France.

By David Thiselton

Durbanville Tuesday Tips and Race Previews by Warren Lenferna

Race 1
Preview: WHAT A SUMMER (1) is seldom far off the action and can get it right today. THE SILVA FOX (2) is better than his last run and can get into the action. L’HISTOIRE (8) has run fourth in both starts and can get a lot closer now – big runner. (Warren Lenferna 1-2-8)

Race 2
Preview: POLLY AGAIN (4) bumps a weak field and if reproducing and improving on the run where she finished fourth behind Double Black – she could go close to winning this. ARCTIC SIREN (1) is improving and is the horse to beat. NEGMA (9) can improve on her debut to run a place. (Warren Lenferna 4-1-9)

Race 3
Preview: FLOATING ON WATER (3) went close at long odds last time and if confirming and improving on that run can win. He is drawn well. MIDDLEMARCH (2) has placed in his last two and should do so again – strong each way chance. PARISIAN GOLD (11) showed good improvement in his second run and should get into the action. (Warren Lenferna 3-2-11)

Race 4
Preview: REBEL’S BURST (7) is taking time to win but is consistent and should win soon. MARION BELLE (8) ran a fair race on debut and has tons of scope to improve – she should be very competitive here from a top draw. JEOVANA (4) placed last time at long odds – quartet chance. (Warren Lenferna 7-8-4)

Race 5
Preview: LILY THERESA (5) is running very well and brings consistent form into the race – she is drawn a bit wide but looks ready to win again. OVER AGAIN (2) jumps from a good draw and has the form to warrant serious respect. SWIFT DANCER (4) disappointed last time but can bounce right back to best. (Warren Lenferna 5-2-4)

Race 6
Preview: CAPTAIN COURTEOUS (4) is way better than his last run – his Durbanville form is good and he is the confident first choice here from a neat draw. PEROVSKIA (5) is running well and showing some ability – expect a big run. NEVER SETTLE (1) can go close at best. (Warren Lenferna 4-5-1)

Race 7
Preview: EVELINA (3) is holding form since winning her maiden and looks ready to win again. ROMANTIC CRUSADE (5) is another holding form since her maiden win and must be respected – she is drawn well. KNOW THE ROPES (1) is much better than her last run shows and it would be silly to ignore her winning chances here. (Warren Lenferna 3-5-1)

Race 8
Preview: PACHANGA (1) made a fair debut and should come on a lot from that and looks tough to beat. BENDY BULLET (2) is coming back to best earlier form and can go close again to winning. AMAROSA (7) from the best draw has a bright chance and must be included in most bets. (Warren Lenferna 1-2-7)

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)