David Thiselton
Brett Crawford clinched his third win in Hong Kong on Sunday to boost an already decent strike rate and it was his former South African stable jockey Karis Teetan who delivered for him, while back in South Africa Chad Little and JP van der Merwe both scored trebles at Hollywoodbets Durbanville and Craig Zackey reached the 50 winner for the season mark on Sunday.
It was an exiting weekend of racing globally as Hong Kong superstar Ka Ying Star proved himself the world’s best sprinter by winning the world’s richest turf race, The Everest at Randwick in Sydney, while Jamie Melham became the first woman in history to ride the winner of the Caulfield Cup and Arc-winning trainer Francis-Henri Graffard completed a memorable season by landing the Champion Stakes with King George winner Calandagan
The Hollywoodbets Durbanville results sheet looked unusual after six races on Saturday, because Chad Little had won three of the races and JP van der Merwe the other three. Chad Little’s guv’nor Glen Kotzen gave him two of his wins and that included a first-timer by Legislate called Midnight Lady. Legislate is also the sire of Kotzen’s Gr 1 Gold Medallion winner Good For You. JP van der Merwe’s won one of the highest rated races on the day, a Progress Plate for fillies and mares over 1250m, as the Candice Bass-Robinson-trained Horizon filly Scarlet Macaw bounced back to the form of her Gr 1 WSB Cape Fillies Guineas runner up finish. The other highly rated race of the day was an A Stakes race over 1400m and it was won by the Dean Kannemeyer-trained gelding Outlaw King, which gave the increasingly prominent sire Rafeef yet another winner, and he was ridden by Craig Zackey.
Zackey and Richard Fourie ended Saturday locked together on 49 wins apiece at the top of the national jockeys log, but Zackey claimed a double on Sunday at Hollywoodbets Greyville to go two ahead on 51.
Earlier on Saturday at Randwick in Sydney the naysayers said Ka Ying Rising had just been beating the same horses in Hong over and over again and didn’t deserve his tag of world’s best sprinter. However, that did not stop him from starting favourite for the Aus$20 million The Everest over 1200m and he then made it look like another Hong Kong race as he easily claimed the box seat in the running under regular rider Zac Purton before taking over in the straight in effortless fashion to win by a comfortable 1,2 lengths. The David Hayes-trained New Zealand-bred Shameexpress gelding has now won his last 14 races in succession.
Meanwhile, at Caulfield racecourse in Melbourne, Jamie Melham (nee Kah), who was the first ever jockey to ride 100 wins in a Melbourne Metropolitan season, had her 17th career Gr 1 win and first major race win when scoring in the Caulfield Cup. She became the first woman jockey to win this big race and gave the $2.50 favourite, the Tony and Calvin McEvoy-trained Half Yours (St Jean), a magnificent ride.
In the UK at Ascot on Saturday, the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes winner, the Irish-bred Gleneagles gelding Calandagan, gave the Arc-winning combination of trainer Francis-Henri Graffard, jockey Mickaël Barzalona and owner Aga Khan Studs SCEA yet another major race winner as he fended off the challenge of market rival Ombudsman to win the Gr 1 Qipco Champion Stakes.
On Sunday at Sha Tin in Hong Kong Brett Crawford won the first race, a Class 5 event over 1400m, with the New Zealand seven-year-old 24-rated Showcasing gelding Double Show. Karis Teetan had the gelding handy on the rail from pole position and he quickened well and went on to win by 1,75 lengths converting 12/1 odds. It was the horse’s second career win and Crawford’s third win in Hong Kong with just his 19th run. That gives him a strike rate of 15.7%. Teetan went on to claim a double and Lyle Hewitson also rode a winner. That put the top jockeys respectively on eight and seven wins for the season.
Luke Ferraris is also on seven wins for the season. Yesterday he not only had a blank but had to also see his biggest feature horse, the Mark Newnham-trained My Wish (Flying Artie), winning the Gr 2 Sha Tin Trophy with another rider, Alex Badel, aboard because he could not make the feather weight of 115 pounds.
Keagan de Melo has yet to have a winner this season, but he finished second on Copartner Prance in the HK$5.35 million Sha Tin Trophy and it was his second runner up in a Group race on this horse this season.
