Anton Marcus was the rock that the KZN Falcons rested on in the second Rider Cup Interprovincial Jockeys Challenge held at Scottsville today but in the end it all turned to sand as the Highveld Hawks sneaked home via an objection in the last leg to edge out the Cape Eagles. The final points tally was Hawks 139 points, Eagles 133 and KZN Falcons 132.

The Eagles were first to strike as Aldo Domeyer rode the perfect race on the Duncan Howells-trained favourite Gordon’s Cungee. There were a lot of not so happy punters after the Australian-bred was run over when favourite for her last start but this time Domeyer followed instructions and got home narrowly ahead of the two Mark Dixon runners Honorary and Dundrum.

This win gave Domeyer his first century of winners in a season at the course where he recorded his first victory.

Domeyer had a tough time of things early in his career, being turfed out of the Jockeys Academy on the premise that he would not make it.

It took him a lot of faith and six years to make it back and with a J&B Met victory to his credit and now 100 winners in a season it was battle worth fighting.

Marcus notched up two winners for the Falcons but it was not enough to claim the title. His first came aboard the Mike de Kock-trained Very Vary in the second leg but there were a few hairy moments before he got the son of Var through to the line. With Escovitch looking to hang in under pressure Very Vary got tight on the inside rail as Kimberley was pressed onto him. “At the 200 I thought they should have been arrested for attempted murder,” quipped Marcus post-race. “It was a courageous run, having to put his head in front and win.”

Marcus was back in the winner’s box in the third leg when the well fancied Wealthy ran up to expectations, keeping on strongly to hold off Silver Rose and Starrett City.

There was drama in the last leg of the Challenge with the reversal of the result resulting in the Hawks edging out the Eagles.

The 1200m handicap produced a blanket finish with the Chris Erasmus-trained Jason Argo ridden by Eagles captain Grant Van Niekerk pipping stablemate Panza with Hawks captain S’manga Khumalo up. However, Khumalo objected and the decision to uphold the protest proved crucial to the outcome of the inter-provincial with the Hawks snatching it on the line.

Andrew Harrison

Mike Bass will be three-handed in his bid to win the Mercury Sprint for the third time in five seasons at Greyville on Saturday.

With stable jockey Grant van Niekerk sitting out a ten-day interference suspension – when winning the Garden Province on Inara – Brandon Lerena gets the call for 2014 winner Fly By Night while Stuart Randolph will be on Lanner Falcon and Callan Murray rides Night Trip.

Brett Crawford is expecting a much-improved performance from his Cape Flying Championship winner Gulf Storm who ran below his best under second top weight in last month’s Tsogo Sun Sprint.

He explained: “I put blinkers on for the five furlong Cape Flying and I made the mistake of leaving them on over six at Scottsville and as a result he pulled too hard. He will race without them on Saturday and I am sure he will run a much better race.”

Justin Snaith will return his three-year-old stars It’s My Turn, Bela-Bela and Black Arthur to Cape Town this week after the trio finished fourth, sixth and seventh in the Vodacom Durban July.

He said: “They are top horses so we are saving them for next season but Dynamic may stay for the Champions Cup (July 30). He is an older horse who has been there and done that.

“Golden Horseshoe winner Zodiac Ruler will run in the Premiers Champion on the same card assuming all goes well and there are no hiccups. He is drawn one but a bad draw would have meant him coming home.”

July runner-up Marinaresco is among the 20 nominations for the Champions Cup but he is unlikely to line up. “He came out of the July fine but he is drawn 18 in the Champions so I don’t think he will run,” said Candice Robinson. “Next season he will be aimed at the Queen’s Plate and the Met.”

Michael Clower

Justin Snaith will add Saturday’s easy Kenilworth winner Gift Of Rain to his Final Fling line-up on Saturday week as he bids to win Cape Town’s penultimate feature of the season for the fourth successive year.

He said: “I promised Gaynor Rupert black type with this horse even before the mare came to South Africa so I am now under a bit of pressure. She is a Galileo and she is a different horse in the soft but just about the only features left for her are the Final Fling and the Jockey Club Stakes (August 26) at Fairview, but if I send her for that and it rains they will switch to the race to the Polytrack.

“They did that when I ran her in it last year. The track was far too firm for her and it has taken me this long to get her back to where I want her.”

Snaith and Richard Fourie made it a memorable return from Texas for Jack Mitchell by following up in the 1800m handicap with Prince Of Wales but the most remarkable story of the day came two races earlier when Jaswick Jordaan added the latest chapter in his contribution to the wonders of modern medicine by riding his first Cape Town winner since his return to the fray.

The tall 23-year-old said: “I was off for three years. The problem started when I suddenly found I couldn’t function that well, probably the result of a fall, and I was in hospital for a year. I spent a further 12 months recovering and then almost another year getting my weight down from 74kg to 59kg.

“I resumed in February/March and this is my sixth winner since. I joined Glen Kotzen a month ago and hopefully I have cracked the ice by winning on Treize for him.”

Prudence Prevails started favourite for the race and contributed to a painful day for punters – all eight favourites were beaten – by unshipping Corne Orffer as she came out of the pens.

But the biggest shock came in the last when Maximum Flo scored at 75-1 under Francois Herholdt who had already won the first on the Mike Robinson-trained Fire In The Belly. Brett Crawford, though, was left scratching his head over runner-up Rock On Geordies.

He said: “If you saw the way he works you’d have thought he would have been out of the maidens a long time ago. He is a frustrating horse.”

Greg Ennion gave up the beliefs of a lifetime with Sign Your Name and was rewarded with victory in the juvenile fillies.

He said: “I have a hard and fast rule that I don’t put blinkers on two-year-olds but Aldo Domeyer, who rode her last time, told me that If I did this filly would win. I rang Robert Khathi on Friday night and said I wanted him to ride her up the course with them on the following morning. He thought I was mad.”

There wasn’t much room when Khathi made his move 300m out but the filly put her head down and barged aside her rivals like Bryan Habana going for a try against the All-Blacks. Domeyer, only third on De Ragatas, is just one short of his first century after taking the mile maiden on Gyre to boost Adam Marcus who has spent the last week in bed with ‘flu and bronchitis.

Four jockeys also cried off sick and this, coupled with Bernard Fayd’Herbe plying his trade in Mauritius with a treble, led to scratchings in the last.

Michael Clower

The Rider Cup Inter-Provincial Jockeys Challenge took place at Scottsville today and the three teams of four fought to an exciting conclusion.

The teams entered the final of four legs with the Cape Eagles and Highveld Hawks locked together on 102 points and the defending champions the KZN Falcons also right there on 99.

The 1200m handicap then produced a blanket finish with the Chris Erasmus-trained Jason Argo, ridden by Eagles captain Grant Van Niekerk, pipping stablemate Panza with Hawks captain S’Manga Khumalo up. Karl Zechner of the Hawks was third on Shogun. However, more drama followed as Khumalo objected. The subsequent upheld decision proved crucial to the outcome of the inter-provincial.

The Highveld Hawks had thus emerged victorious on 139 points to the Eagles on 133 and the Falcons on 132.

In the first leg Aldo Domeyer of the Eagles converted favouritism on the Duncan Howells-trained Gordon’s Cungee. Corne Orffer and Khumalo earned second and third-placed points on the Mark Dixon-trained pair Honorary and Dundrum respectively.

Anton Marcus then got one back for the Falcons, who were captained by Anthony Delpech, when the Mike de Kock-trained two-year-old Very Vary proved too good for a weak maiden field over 1200m. An objection by third-placed Kimberley, ridden by Van Niekerk, against second-placed Escovitch with Zechner up was unsuccessful.

The Eagles led at this stage on 79 points with the Hawks on 70 and the Falcons on 53.

In the third leg Marcus converted favouritism again on the Dennis Drier-trained Wealthy, although the runner up Silver Rose with the Falcons’ Keagan de Melo up was baulked for a run and possibly unlucky. However, with Starret City earning third-placed points for the Hawks’ JP van der Merwe, an exciting conclusion was assured. The other jockeys competing were Muzi Yeni (Falcons), Andrew Fortune (Hawks) and Teaque Gould (Eagles).

David Thiselton

Medical marvel Jeff Lloyd surged further ahead in the Brisbane jockeys’ premiership yesterday. The 55-year-old former South African, who collapsed after suffering a stroke in 2012 and doubted whether he would ride again, claimed a winning quartet at Doomben.

Lloyd’s fabulous foursome on Snow Fields, Dream Choice, Dame Destiny and Angel Dancer took him to 71 metropolitan winners for the season. With six metro meetings to go in the season, it stretched Lloyd’s lead over apprentice James Orman (66) and last season’s riding champion Jim Byrne (65.5).

Lloyd has ridden more than 5000 winners around the world, including 95 Group 1s, and his comeback from ill health has been nothing short of remarkable.

But it wasn’t even close to Lloyd’s best day in the saddle. “My best effort was to win seven races in a day, on two occasions in South Africa,” Lloyd said.

Lloyd isn’t counting his chickens just yet in the jockeys’ premiership and insists he wants to get a bigger lead before the premiership winds up at the end of the month.

He has never won the Brisbane title and is keen to keep the young guns at bay. “It is always good to ride winners and I just want to keep riding more and more winners,” Lloyd said.

Lloyd is renowned for getting the best out of his mounts and trainer Chris Munce was full of praise after Lloyd won on two-year-old Snow Fields. Munce, who had his own health battle when he beat cancer, has forged a strong friendship with Lloyd.

“Jeff is a good rider and when he gets in the right groove there is no better,” Munce said. “He gets horses running well, they travel well for him and he is always strong at the finish. I am happy he is leading the premiership because he deserves success. He works hard and rides well.”

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