The Frank Robinson-trained Global View gelding Amor Fati stood out in the preliminaries at the Hollywoodbets Greyville poly meeting on Wednesday and he duly won to give Sean Veale a treble and Robinson a double. (Candiese Lenferna Photography)
Sean Veale scored a treble on the Hollywoodbets Greyille poly on Wednesday and there were doubles for Rachel Venniker and Frank Robinson.
Veale goes to 47 wins for the season and has done it at a strike rate of 14.24%.
Venniker is on 34 wins at 16.43%.
Robinson is on eight wins at 13.56%.
Andrew Harrison wrote the below report about the meeting.
Andrew Harrison (Gold Circle)
There was only one horse in the market for the first at Hollywoodbets Greyville yesterday. Andy Coogle touched 20-1 in the early market but came home under a ton of money for Kom Naidoo’s charge and eventually paid a miserly R3.40 on the tote.
Serino Moodley took advantage of an inside draw and a drop in trip to get home comfortably from Future Flo and Mc Dazzler. This trio came together crossing the subway with Mc Dazzler the first to wave the white flag. Next was Future Flo who just couldn’t keep up with Andy Coogle who kept up a relentless gallop.
With the scratching of Summerland and Queen Amina, the second race field cut up into five runners but it turned into an absolute procession with snakebite survivor Duke Of Africa cruising in by over eight lengths for Frank Robinson.
The diminutive maiden Rainwater made the early running with Sean Veale biding his time at the back but always in touch. Rainwater folded quickly when challenged with Blazing Light and favourite King Bavarian challenging but Veale switched Duke Of Africa to the outside and he motored past.
How the handicappers view the win will be interesting.
There was quiet confidence in the Doug Campbell camp after the grey Arctic Fury had run on late in her previous start. Albeit that she finished some nine lengths back to the winner, the money came in spades and Rachel Venniker landed the gamble. Carrying joint bottom weight in a maiden handicap Venniker had Arctic Fury settled on the fence towards the rear as Yellow Jacket made the running.
Robinson had earlier described the poly track as ‘heavy’ and it appeared to be a correct assessment with all the runners seemingly struggling to quicken. Switching off the inside rail, Venniker got a perfect split up the middle and Arctic Fury gradually wore down the opposition to get home ahead of fellow bottom weight, Gale Force Nine.
The decision by Andre Nel to send Faire Advantage to KZN and assistant Byron Forster has paid dividends as the six-year-old went back-to-back in the Gallop TV MR66 Handicap. It was also a double up for Venniker who rode an almost carbon copy of the previous race on Arctic Fury.
Venniker was content to bring up the rear for most of the early exchanges as Brave Bomber pulled himself to the front and again it appeared as if horses were struggling to quicken in the straight. However, Faire Advantage made light of his burden and was relentless as he reeled in the opposition with only Wave Warrior able to make a race of it.
Andy Coogle made all in the first, for the next three races the front runners folded early as the eventual winners arrived from well off the early pace, but Kabelo Matsunyane read the track perfectly and after one ride aboard Safe And Sound, he had her worked out and give Duncan Howells the correct feedback.
He had the goodlooking daughter of Querari out and relaxed in front and she was not for the catching with Matsunyane having no need to draw his stick.
Favourite Ginger Delight never looked comfortable, trailing the field from the jump and not going on with her effort.
Stuart Ferrie admitted that King’s Island works up a storm at home but seldom produced when it counted. Not yesterday. Always handy, he kept up a relentless gallop to get past front-running Gauteng visitor Force De Dieu.
Unfortunately Irish Luck went wrong in the race inconveniencing Imaginable, race favourite Royal Swan Master and Rodriguez with Imaginable running a cracker under the circumstances to get up for third.
Purple Flower had her consistency rewarded and went one better in the seventh. Athandiwe Mgudlwa took his time getting the mare into the race but when he asked for an effort, Alyson Wright’s charge eased through the opposition and went to the line unchallenged with Paul Gadsby’s two runners, Roy Taking Off and Miss Lialah fighting it out for the shallow end of the purse.
Veale had a good afternoon as he scored his third on the day and second for Frank Robinson but had to work hard on race favourite Amor Fati in the last. Kept out of the kick-back, Amor Fati was wide into the straight but slowly picked up momentum to run them all out of it. It was not the strongest field but Robinson intimated that he had not got to the bottom of his charge and the gelding should come on from this win.
