Futura’s full brother Scribner took his first step towards emulating the 2015 Horse of the Year when leading 100m out in the Kuda Maiden at Durbanville on Saturday but his many owners are going to have to hold thumbs that he stands up to racing.
Brett Crawford explained: “He fractured his near-fore knee after his first start in September. We didn’t have to operate but we had to give him time. Now he has to find his feet while we have to keep him sound.”
Crawford had his first juvenile winner of the season – one of the last of Cape Town’s big guns to do so – when Corne Orffer initiated a double on Finding Camelot (a son of triple classic winner Camelot) in the Equi-Feeds Maiden Juvenile.
“A lot of our two-year-olds came in late and we have only run two,” the Philippi trainer explained. “But this one is an exciting horse, he has a lot of scope for improvement and he is crying out for a trip.”
However the one that got away was Boomps A Daisy and to add insult to injury it happened in the race that Crawford sponsored. This was the horse that most of the scribes (including this one) said was a racing certainty. Sadly, though, it’s such supposed good things that are God’s gift to bookmakers. The money poured on her in the few minutes before the off and she started at 5-10.
Slowly out of the gate, she was soon leaving Greg Cheyne looking anxious and it was obvious a long way from home that she was going to get beaten. Third, more than three and a half lengths off the winner, was the closest she could get.
“She never handled the turn – she couldn’t work out which leg she wanted to be on,” Cheyne reported. “We weren’t going much of a pace and she had no momentum turning into the straight. But she is better than this.”
The filly’s trainer took much the same view, adding: “It surprised me a bit that she ran so well the first time but after that I thought she had a winning chance here. But this was only her second start and we have to give her the benefit of the doubt.”
By contrast the Adam Marcus-trained newcomer Lana Belle came right away in the final furlong with Aldo Domeyer looking back to see what on earth had happened to the favourite. According to father Basil, Marcus jnr “will bring the winner along slowly and take her one step at a time.”
By the time you read this the last four of Sean Tarry’s visitors will be on the long float home to Johannesburg and the quartet includes Rock The Globe and Immeasurable, first and second in the inaugural Klawervlei Farm Sale Stakes.
Robert Khathi had a belated first winner of the year on Duchess of Bourbon for Justin Snaith who was also on the mark with the Richard Fourie-ridden Ferrari Red in the first.
Khathi explained: “I injured my left knee, they found that it was cracked and I was off for four months. The doctor said it had probably been like this for the last five years because I could feel it clicking when I was running.”
Anthony Andrews continued his winning run by making all on Singfonico for Tobie Spies in the VHM Racing Handicap while Howard Crawford was given a great reception when leading in Dynamite Jack, the third leg of Domeyer’s treble.
By Michael Clower
