Vihaan’s Bomb (Lancaster Bomber) scores a fourth successive staying race victory and completes a treble for Gareth van Zyl and was the second leg of a double for Richard Fourie (Candiese Lenferna Photography)
Gareth van Zyl’s late charge last season failed to secure him a second successive KZN Trainers championship, as Garth Puller held on, but he will be hoping to keep the momentum going all the way to the line this season after scoring a treble at Hollywoodbets Scottsville on Wednesday that saw him close to within two wins of championship leader Alyson Wright.
Van Zyl started the day with 48 wins in KZN this season, but made that 49 when his 7/1 shot first-timer Henry Harvey (The United States) produced a strong finish under Richard Fourie to catch the fancied My Boy Lollipop and win by a quarter of a length.
Two races later Serino Moodley won a 1000m event by 0,90 lengths on the Van Zyl-trained favourite Icy Lancaster (Lancaster Bomber). For good measure Van Zyl claimed the exacta here as the 33/1 shot Are You Sure (Futura) finished second.
Van Zyl was expected to win the fourth race with Pritti Victory (Vercingetorix), but this 7/10 shot was unable to get past the persistent Louis Goosen-trained 8/1 shot War Empress (Vercingetorix).
However, in the fifth race Van Zyl’s stalwart stayer Vihaan’s Bomb (Lancaster Bomber) won for the fourth time in succession. Richard Fourie has been aboard for all four of those races, all of which have been over staying trips.
Wright only had two runners on the day and both finished unplaced.
There are four meetings left in KZN this season and the championship could be decided on the polytrack on the last day of the season, Wednesday 31 July.
Overall Van Zyl has had 60 wins countrywide this season and has achieved it at a strike rate of 12.74%.
His 51 wins in KZN have come at a strike rate of 15.36%.
Fourie’s treble today takes him to 372 wins for the season at 23.19%.
Serino Moodley’s double takes him to 79 wins at 12.48%.
