Fire Attack and Royal Victory locked together in battle. (Candiese Lenferna Photography).
On Saturday at Turffontein Standside three-year-old Fire Away colt Fire Attack became the first Gr 2 SA Nursery winner to go on to win the Gr 1 weight for age HKJC World Pool Premier’s Champions Challenge and he did so under Richard Fourie.
Fire Attack thus won the top race for precocious two-year-olds at Gauteng’s Champions Day meeting and a year later won the top open Gr 1 at the same meeting, a fine training feat by Alec Laird.
Laird also became the first trainer since Geoff Woodruff in the 2017 /2018 season to win Joburg’s two biggest races with two different horses in the same season.
Laird won the Gr 1 Betway Summer Cup in November with Atticus Finch (Master Of My Fate) before following up on Saturday in the Premier’s Champions Challenge with Fire Attack (Fire Away).
Woodruff did the double with Master Sabina (Jet Master) and Deo Juvente (Trippi) in the 2016/2017 season.
The only other trainer to achieve the feat has been Sean Tarry in the 2009/2010 season with Aslan and Regal Ransom.
A number of trainers have achieved this double with the same horse (Mike de Kock, Ilha da Vitoria 2005/2006, Geoff Woodruff, Yorker 2013/2014, Johan Janse van Vuuren, Puerto Manzano 2022/2023, Nathan Kotzen, Royal Victory 2023/2024).
Fire Attack, who was ridden by Richard Fourie, and last year’s winner of this race Royal Victory, who was ridden by Muzi Yeni, were involved in an exciting tussle for the line on Satuday and appeared to collide close to home as the former shifted in and the latter shifted out away from their respective sticks and thereafter Fire Attack bumped Royal Victory again before the line before winning by a quarter of a length.
The stipendiary stewards reported:
A race review was called by a member of the Stipendiary Board which was followed by an Objection being lodged by M Yeni on behalf of the second-placed horse, ROYAL VICTORY, against the winner, FIRE ATTACK (R Fourie), on the grounds of interference in the concluding stages. The Board, after giving regard to the evidence presented by the relevant parties, the movement of both horses which caused the first bump, the proximity of the second contact to the finish line, the distance of 0.25 lengths between these two horses and the manner which both horses finished the race, could not be comfortably satisfied that the result had been affected by this incident, therefore overruled the Objection and allowed the Judges result to stand.
Jockey M Yeni’s deposit was refunded.
Alec Laird felt Royal Victory was the aggressor in the initial bump, but this opinion was not shared by Nathan Kotzen, trainer of Royal Victory.
Laird said Fourie had told the owners Fire Attack had “not really stayed and it was his heart that had got him home.”
However, this could be a premature assessment as Fire Attack was caught wide early from draw nine out of nine and Fourie had to do some work to get to the front before the first turn. He then sat one out and one back in the running without cover.
Therefore Fire Attack did well to find extra at the end, having stayed on nicely while either just being sat on or ridden with the hands in the straight all the way to the 200m mark.
Purple Pitcher set the pace and did well to fight back for a 2,35 length third after being overtaken by both of the two chief protagonists, as well as Laird’s Summer Cup winner Atticus Finch, in the straight.
Atticus Finch ran a cracker to be beaten just 2,65 lengths into fourth.
The first four were in their own league as fifth placed None Other was beaten 11,25 lengths.
It has been a fine season for Laird whose stake earnings of R8,614,625.00 put him in fifth place in the championship.
The Summer Cup carried a stake of R6 million and the Premier’s carried a stake of R2 million, but besides those two big wins Laird has also won the R1 million Gr 2 TAB Gauteng Guineas with Parisian Walkway (Ideal World) and the Gr 3 R400,000 Betway Victory Moon Stakes with Greeting My Master (Master Of My Fate).
Fire Attack was bred by Applewood Trading (Pty) Ltd T/A Ndoro Stud and is owned by Messrs G A Basel, G C Cornwall, L Clark & Canine Solutions CC (Nom: Mr D C O’Driscoll).
Laird and connections have not yet discussed a future route for either Fire Attack or Atticus Finch, although both look to be Hollywoodbets Durban July possibles.
He was mystified by Parisian Walkway’s unplaced effort in the Gr 1 TAB SA Derby and did not think it was a stamina issue as he said he was gone a long way out.
He said, “He didn’t pitch up on the day and we don’t know why, because he pulled up sound.”
