Tsogo sprint race day wrap

The large crowd at Scottsville Racecourse in Pietermaritzburg on a balmy autumn afternoon were treated to four fantastic Grade 1 clashes on Saturday as the country’s best speed horses battled it out over the toughest 1 200m track in the country in the annual Tsogo Sun festival of speed.

At the end of the day it was Summerveld trainer Dennis Drier that stood out as the champion of the meeting taking two of the four feature events, one of them, the Tsogo Sun Gold Medallion for two-year-old colts and geldings, for the sixth time and the fourth in a row.

It was Seventh Plain, the son of former winner in 2007, Seventh Rock, that scored the victory with both horses having been ridden by top jockey Anton Marcus, This outstanding feat was followed up two races later when Drier’s four-year-old Captain Al colt, Captain Of All under Sean Cormack, demolished the opposition in the premier feature on the card, the R1-million Tsogo Sun Sprint.

Both Saturday’s winners were for leading South African owners Ingrid and Markus Jooste.

Drier, nephew and protégé as a young man of the great Syd Laird, first won the two-year-old race with Spook And Diesel in 1990 and in recent years took the honours with Link Man, Potent Power, Captain Of All and Guiness.

Captain Of All, that recoded his sixth win from 11 starts in this race, will complete his racing career at the end of this season, possibly in the Grade 1 Mercury Sprint, before being sent to stud according to racing manager for the Jooste team, Derek Brugman, in his post-race interview. He congratulated Drier and Cormack for the win.
Both Drier and Cormack insisted, Drier in the case of both his winners, that it was a team effort praising the hard work and dedication of all at the Summerveld stable.

Captain Of All disputed favouritism on the tote with the Sean Tarry-trained Australian-bred colt Willow Magic but when it came down to the action, nothing could match Captain Of All that just out-paced and out-stayed them all to win by 1.25 lengths. Gulf Storm from the Brett Crawford stable ran a top race for second ahead of rank outsider Sheik’s Braashee and the Western Winter filly Bichette.

The Grade 1 programme got underway with the Allan Robertson Championship where the Mike de Kock-trained Australian filly Shaama was hot-pot favourite mainly on the fact that stable jockey Anthony Delpech was on board and she had run a great second against the colts in the SA Nursery at Turffontein. But it was stable companion Entisaar, also an Australian import under Johnny Geroudis, that powered ahead in the closing stages to take the victory ahead of Princess Royal, Madame Dubois and Speedy Suzy.

Later it was the turn of the older fillies and mares in the City Of Pietermaritzburg Fillies Sprint where the De Kock star filly Alboran Sea was all the rage in the betting. She had won the Cape Flying Championship and the Computaform Sprint and was on course for her third Grade 1 win in a row. Second favourite, having finished a close second to Alboran Sea in the Computaform Sprint, was the Tarry-trained Captain Al filly Carry On Alice.

In the race Alboran Sea and Carry On Alice tracked early pacemakers Varikate and Jet Aglow but when it came to the business end and the fight for the honours became serious, it was Carry On Alice that carried the strongest guns and she took command. Alboran Sea put up a gallant fight but only just managed to hold off the strong finishing run by the Mike Bass-trained Fly By Night for second place with outsider Virgo’s Babe doing well to take fourth place.

In winning the Tsogo Sun Sprint, jockey Sean Cormack recorded his 10th feature win at the Scottsville course and will be featured on the accolade wall at the Pietermaritzburg course.




Photography and Journslism supplied by Gold Circle publishing