Imilenzeyokududuma gives both Sean Veale and Hollywood Racing a double. (Candiese Lenferna Photography).
Andrew Harrison
Former Betway Summer Cup winner Royal Victory was widely expected to land the Non-Black Type Michael Roberts Stakes on Sunday at Hollywoodbets Scottsville, but clearly 1750m is now way short of his optimum as market rival Imilenzeyokududuma gave Sean Veale a double for Hollywood Racing, after scoring earlier in an enterprising ride on the Stuart Ferrie-trained Capsaicin.
Always within striking distance of the pace, Veale went for home at just the right time on Gareth van Zyl’s runner to hold off the Miller-trained Narina Trogon with Royal Victory making late progress to make up the trifecta.
Mike Miller is a wizard at getting his horses to come early and generally dominates the early two-year-old exchanges in KZN.
With the new KZN Futurity progamme in place courtesy of Hollywood’s anticipated takeover of Gold Circle, Miller was not caught napping in taking advantage of the R300k stake on offer, going home with the lion’s share of the booty, winner Comic Relief unbeaten in two.
Miller had three fillies taking on males in the first of the KZN Futurity races at Hollywoodbets Scottsville on Sunday and it was 1-2-3 for the yard with Holds The Key, the only colt in his quartet, finishing fifth. Given the increased stake money, this trend of fillies taking on males is likely to be ongoing and likely encourage other trainers to have a rethink about how they go forward with their juveniles.
Holds The Key was quickly out of the blocks and went tearing off to the lead with stable first call rider Tristan Godden biding his time on Comic Relief who looked to be the stable’s first choice.
And so it proved, as Comic Relief finished off her race smartly to hold off charging stable companion Captains Envy with Siesta Sunset a comfortable third.
William Robertson, back over one of his favourite courses and well weighted to win the Non-Black Type African Holly Stakes, found one too good for him as Siphesihle Hlengwe got outsider Captain Bombshell home to hold off the late-charging favourite. With the ground a touch on the soft side, William Robertson looked to be somewhat out of his ground in the early exchanges as Craig Zackey sat off the pace, and although finishing strongly, William Robertson ran out of runway the last 200m.
Ride of the day went to Veale on Capsaicin in the opening leg of the Pick 6. His mount to took a hold of the bit, intentionally or not – he was reluctant to be drawn on the issue – but he went many lengths clear in the manner of an inexperience 4kg claimer.
However, as the opposition closed up at the top of the straight, Capsaicin kept on giving in what was an heroic victory.
Mike and Dianne de Kock along with son Matthew were on course, no doubt hoping that Calantha would win for the Ladies Onamission syndicate of which Dianne is the nominee, but the filly was run out of it by the Miller-trained Licence To Thrill.
However, the team did not go home empty handed as Top Seed, rested and gelded after pulling up dodgy on debut, made short work of his opposition in the first leg of the PA, winning with authority and De Kock senior making the point that Top Seed will not die a one-time winner.
