Captain America satisfied Brett Crawford when running on to take third in the Champions Day Pinnacle Stakes at Turffontein on Saturday. The five-year-old will now attempt to repeat last year’s HF Oppenheimer Horse Chestnut win on April 2.

Crawford said: “For a prep run I was happy enough. I don’t think the race was run to suit him. They went very slowly and he was caught three wide but he did come back at them at the end.”

Captain America was set to give weight all round and he drifted from 6-10 to 11-10. He looked like being swallowed up at the 200m mark but he responded well to JP van der Merwe’s urgings to finish third to Silver Scooter. Regular rider Corne Orffer will take over in the Horse Chestnut.

Cape Flying Championship runner-up Brutal Force is being aimed to the Computaform Sprint at Turffontein on April 30. The four-year-old is already in Johannesburg under the care of the Joey Ramsden assistant Alson.

Stable companion King Of Pain, winner of last month’s CTS Chairman’s Cup, is to go to Durban where he won the 2014 Rising Sun Gold Challenge. This time he will run in staying races.

By Michael Clower

Picture: Captain America (Liesl King)

Richard Fourie has decided, a little surprisingly perhaps, to ride as a freelance for the time being.

When he won on the Justin Snaith newcomer Le Harve on only his second ride back at Kenilworth on Saturday it looked business very much as usual, with his signature on the record-breaking trainer’s dotted line all that was needed to restore the pre-Hong Kong partnership.

But Fourie said afterwards: “I’m not making any decisions yet and at this stage I don’t want to commit myself to anything. I want to see if I can pick my rides.”

Snaith, meanwhile, is busy nurturing his two-year-old talent and said: “I will wait a bit with Le Harve, put him away and look after him. But Bishop’s Bounty could run in the 1 100m race on Saturday although he needs ground while I am tempted to geld Sergeant Hardy (Met day Listed winner) as he is a very big horse.”

Tar Heel, who led from halfway for Joey Ramsden in the OFYT Pinnacle, looks like having a crack at next month’s Computaform Sprint – albeit by default.

Derek Brugman reasoned: “He is an out-and-out 1 000m horse and Group-wise there is not much for him in Durban. The Computaform wouldn’t be first choice and you couldn’t go into it with a lot of confidence but I can’t see an alternative.”

Donovan Dillon, who rode the 7-1 shot, is developing a useful association with Glen Kotzen and gave the Woodhill trainer his 40^th winner of the season on newcomer South Side in the Birchwood Hotel Maiden.

Andre Nel is planning a tilt at the Fillies Winter Series with the Midas Handicap winner Captain’s Flame while Percival will also be kept in Cape Town after getting the better of Little Mo close home to justify some hefty support in the First Cut Handicap.

Nel said: “Captain’s Flame can be a little hot but she is pretty talented. Percival is improving all the time and I think he is going to enjoy the winter.”

Winners are what most jockeys want for their birthdays and Aldo Domeyer, who celebrated his 29^th with an Alan Greeff treble at Fairview on Friday, partnered both the Nel winners and got Pixelate up in the final furlong of the Boland Promotions Maiden for Shane Humby.

Both Bernard Fayd’Herbe and Brett Crawford are convinced that Me Myself And I will be better over further after the 8-1 chance came into her own in the closing stages of the mile Tytec Maiden. The winner is owned by the Ridgemont Stud which was also successful with the filly’s year older half-sister Chinawhite at Turffontein 90 minutes earlier.

Riding master Terrance Welch has abandoned post-CTS Million Dollar plans to go countrywide with Heavelon  van der Hoven who partnered the 17^th winner of his lucrative season after the Mike Robinson-trained Bold Aspen was backed from 12-1 to 6-1  in the Brilliant Glass Maiden.

Welch explained: “Heavelon will go to PE and possibly some apprentice races in Durban but riding elsewhere is not going to work. It’s in Cape Town that he gets his support and the trainers here want the jockeys with them in the mornings. Once riders start disappearing they don’t want them at all.”

By Michael Clower

Derreck David was pinching himself hard after he rode a winner at his very first Kranji ride, Poseidon – and in Friday night’s feature race for good measure.

The 27-year-old South African jockey was already grateful he had been given a chance to “live his lifelong dream” of riding in Singapore at an early stage of his relatively young career, but to win first-up was the icing on the cake he had not quite expected. In his own words, it was “unreal”.

The long and frustrating wait before he got the nod probably made him savour that moment even more. David has tried a few times to get in before but was unsuccessful, and when he finally got the stamp of approval, his original six-week tenure was whittled down to only one week through no fault of his – long processing time for his work permit.

The former South African champion apprentice jockey and reigning Mauritius champion jockey could have moaned or felt shortchanged but he remained positive.

To him, the six rides – two on Friday and four on Sunday – was still a crack in the door, and how he flung it wide open with a brilliant front-running ride aboard Poseidon in the $125,000 Racing Guide Classic (1400m).

Known as the “Prince of the Kilometre” in Mauritius for his knack at getting horses out of the barriers in a flash in 1000m scampers, David showed his reputation was not usurped.

Bouncing Poseidon ($36) out from the second worst barrier, David eagerly scrubbed up his mount until he was two lengths clear before crossing to the steel. The Gold Centre four-year-old was inclined to reef and tear a little, but David showed silky skills as he gave him a breather before they cornered for the judge as the horse to run down.

The $24 favourite Dragon Fury (Danny Beasley) and Hughsy (Wong Chin Chuen) closed him down but David had not gone for broke yet, easing Poseidon off to the middle part of the track first before throwing everything he had at him, like his life depended on it inside the last 100m.

Dragon Fury came huffing and puffing but was beaten a short head by Poseidon for that perfect mythological snapshot. The Dragon slain by the God of the Sea thanks to a divine ride from a mastercraftman named David.

“My dream has come true. I’m very emotional now, it feels unreal,” said David who had his equally ecstatic wife Angelique by his side after the win.

“It was already a dream to ride here at the Singapore Turf Club and to win at my first ride, it doesn’t get any better than this.

“I have to say the wide draw was a concern, but he really pinged the gates tonight. I got him out quickly, which is something I’m pretty good at and when I saw a couple of horses inside me were slow I knew half the battle would be won once we crossed over.

“He travelled beautifully and in the straight, with only 52.5kg on his back, he didn’t stop. I tried to come out to intimidate the others but I didn’t have to as he had his ears pricked and never stopped.

“He’s a nice progressive up-and-coming horse and I’d like to thank Mr Cliff Brown for putting me on him.”

The feeling was mutual with the Australian conditioner who had never met or heard of David before, but still took a chance with him and was repaid with a third consecutive win from the Olympian Stable-owned gelding.

“I was getting to know him and he was getting to know me, too. And we got a winner, how good is that?” said Brown. A

“This horse showed good gate speed at his last win with Rueven (Ravindra) and I told Derreck to do the same from the wide barrier tonight. He rode him very well and it’s good for him he got a winner at his very first ride here.

“Things are going really well with this horse and the owners too. They’re having a ball but we’ll just take it as it comes.

“He’s an easy horse to train. All we have to do is just get him ready, I don’t deserve much credit.

“He is a progressive horse and we may look at the Singapore Four-Year-Old series with him.

With that fifth win, Poseidon was completing a three-in-a-row with earnings closing in on the $320,000 mark.

– South China Morning Post

Jockey Karl Zechner has matured tremendously in the tough profession he has chosen and the Triple Crown hopeful Abashiri could take this once virtually forgotten about rider to the next level.

Zechner believes there is a still a lot more to come in both his and Abashiri’s career, so it is exciting times.

Zechner said it was the move to Johannesburg half-way through 2012 which helped his career turn around.

However, before that an eight month stint in New Zealand in 2009 riding for the small string of owner John Carter also helped his riding, despite the sojourn only yielding two winners.

He said, “It’s very different out there, it’s very rough, they don’t give an inch and I learnt a lot about placing a horse. It’s wet and the ground is often sticky, so the going becomes very important, you had to know where it was best on the day.”

His tactical nous improved as well as his understanding of racing due to the many people he met from a country passionate about the sport.

In Johannesburg Zechner was given a lot more opportunities. He had a big win on the Saeed Mohideen-trained Zambucca in the Gr 2 Victory Moon Stakes of 2012, a race he was to win again in 2014 aboard the Tyrone Zackey-trained Judicial.

On New Year’s Day 2013 Zechner was reunited with Royal Zulu Warrior, who amazingly returned from a layoff of nearly two years to win the Gr 3 Lebelo Sprint at Turffontein. Zechner had ridden this horse to respective nine length and six length victories over 1200m at Clairwood back in December 2010 and regarded him as the best he had ridden until climbing aboard Abashiri.

Zechner began rising up the National Jockeys log and this was helped further when his travels to Port Elizabeth culminated in a lethal partnership with trainer Dorrie Sham.

From the doldrums of the 2011/2012 season, when riding just nine winners, he broke into the top 20 last season, riding 71 winners and finishing 14th on the log. On top of that his 17 winners at Borrowdale saw him crowned Zimbabwean Champion Jockey. This term he has broken into the top ten in South Africa and is currently in 8th position. He drew level with his record of 71 winners in a season on Friday at Fairview when riding the Yvette Bremner-trained Copper Parade to victory in the Listed East Cape Sprint Cup. His strike rate, with still over four months of the season remaining, has improved to 10.58%.

Zechner, who is known for his strength, has always admired top riders like Piere Strydom, Jeff Lloyd and Anton Marcus and their professionalism has rubbed off on him.

He studies every race he is going to be riding in, so will know which is the horse to follow and where both the pace and the dangers will be coming from. The going is often paramount and he always tries to position himself on the right side as early as possible.

His agent Desmond Zackey and wife Lauren have also played big roles in maintaining his career on an upward curve Zechner is one of three jockeys who could probably count themselves as stable jockey to the ever more powerful yard of Mike Azzie. He said, “I share the rides with JP (van der Merwe) and Callan (Murray). Mr Azzie puts on the riders which suit the horse best.”

Zechner used to help Azzie out on the training tracks at Summerveld during the Champions Season and the favour is now being returned.

Zechner describes the Go Deputy gelding Abashiri as a very professional horse, who can correct minor mistakes made by a jockey. He is a tough horse too and wasn’t phased by the bumps and squeezes he received early in the Gauteng Guineas. The mile is too short for him, so Zechner asked him to unwind early in the straight, not wanting to be caught flat footed. This decision turned out to be spot on.

The giant-striding bay will relish the 1800m trip of the Gr 1 SA Classic and should get the SA Derby trip of 2450m.

Zechner said, “We have a tough couple of weeks in front of us, although he is an easy horse to work with. He wants to get to the track, but once he’s there he relaxes and enjoys his work. Like most good horses he reserves his best for the races.”

Abashiri is fast becoming the darling of the public and Zechner concluded, “He has opened doors for me, these are the horses you want to try and get on. I’m very fortunate, he is very smart and he is young, so is only going to progress.”

By David Thiselton

The Frank Robinson-trained Dynasty filly Olma proved herself the best polytrack horse in the country by winning the Gr 3 Kings Cup over 1600m on Friday night at Greyville in comfortable style under Ian Sturgeon, despite carrying 58kg under handicap conditions against the boys off a merit rating of 101.

However, she is just as good on turf and Robinson is now targeting the Gr 1 Laurie Jaffee Empress Club Stakes over 1600m at Turffontein on April 16.

The Kings Cup was run in the rain and took place shortly after a torrential downpour.

The going on the all weather surface for the last three races was described as “rain affected” but most horses didn’t seem phased.

Sturgeon said he knew virtually from the off it would take a good one to beat the small Dynasty filly as she was “moving so sweetly”.

She came from the box seat on the rail and used her exceptional turn of foot followed by her resolute finish to overtake the brave Alyson Wright-trained pace maker Mumsy’s Jet and win by 2,75 lengths.

The Charles Laird-trained Stormy Eclipse stayed on strongly and was just a short-head further back in third.

The Tote favourite Exit Here was asked to do quite a lot early to find a handy position from a draw of eight and found nothing in the straight, finishing last.

Robinson said the race provided further evidence Olma was improving all the time.  The mile seems to be her best trip too.

Robinson and Sturgeon also combined to win the first race over 1200m with the impressive Horse Chestnut three-year-old gelding Bahamas Woodstar, who ran on powerfully from last to win easily. He had been unlucky on debut last October when hampered, which also caused him to pull up sore. Robinson, because he rates this horse so highly, decided to allow him the time to recover fully, and is not going to rush him into anything too soon.

Later the up and coming Dean Kannemeyer-trained sprinter Captain Alfredo announced his South African Champions Season pretensions with a fine win in a MR 102 handicap over 1000m, wearing down the useful Viva La Var. The Gr 1 Tsogo Sun Sprint is likely to be on his agenda.

Kannemeyer’s Real Princess didn’t enjoy the slow pace of a Conditions Plate over 1400m, where she was 5kg well in, and couldn’t catch Weiho Marwing’s Auatralian-bred filly Sensible Lover. The latter has always been well regarded and is coming into her own.

Dennis Drier added a double to his four-timer the previous Wednesday. Stable jockey Sean Veale rode four of these six winners.

By David Thiselton