Plum Pudding (Silvano) clinches a quick double for the Serino Moodley/Andre Nel combination and both wins were for owner Sabine Plattner. (Picture: Candiese Lenferna Photography).
Andrew Harrison
It was a day of contrasting finishes at Hollywoodbets Greyville yesterday, some horses winning by a street, others battling tight finishes.
Ziyan’s Pride enjoyed the step up in trip as MJ Odendaal’s colt powered home in the first under Marco van Rensburg with the balance of the field well beaten.
Nautical Landing was not for the catching in the second. Tristan Godden bounced Mike Miller’s filly out from her ten draw and took no prisoners. Leading from the jump, she quickened smartly at the top of the straight and was not for the catching.
Silver Platter finally got his consistency rewarded in the third. Serino Moodley took the big-striding gelding to the front and made a winning move at the top of the straight to easily hold off a late-charging Limelight Legend.
Silver Platter was the first of two winners for owner Sabine Plattner and trainer Andre Nel, who was on course to lead in Silver Platter but gave all credit to his Summerveld assistant Byron Forster and his team.
Plum Pudding and Serino Moodley had to work a little harder in the fourth for Nel and Plattner as she only got into top gear over the final furlong to touch off Sign Of Fate and Plum Pudding’s stable companion Spring Kiss.
It was a Garth Puller one-two in the fifth as Queue Wing as apprentice Mxolisi Mbuto made good use of his 4kg claim to pinch and lead and hold off a fast-finishing stable companion Imperial Power to deny Moodley a quick treble.
Malcolm’s Dream has hardly ever run a bad race for Mark Dixon and the Carlise family who bred the mare at their Kinmount Stud in the KZN Midlands. Named in memory of their good friend Malcolm Phillips, Malcolm’s Dream notched up the seventh win of her career when scoring convincingly on the poly.
Cole Dicken seems to get the best out of her and back in the saddle yesterday, Malcolm’s Dream responded with a sustained finish and was never for the catching.
It was a battle of the apprentices in the eighth, a Class 5 over 1400m, as Damyan Pillay got the best out of Darryl Moore’s gelding Danube to edge out Send Me to deny Mxolisi Mbuto a double. Ironically Mbuto was aboard Danube at his last start.
It was Pillay’s first win back after fracturing his hip in a fall at Summerveld that set him back six months. Serious injuries quite often have an adverse effect on a young riders confidence but Pillay appears up to making a confident comeback.
MJ Odendaal landed a double as Thisiswhatitmeans made it three on the bounce for Sean Veale and Hollywood Racing in the eighth. Racing well back in the early exchanges as Twenty One May and Good Traveller set solid early fractions, when it came to the sharp end of the race, Thisiswhatitmeans finished best of all as he reeled in the pacemakers to win going away with Good Traveller edging Twenty One May for the shallow end of the purse.
The win by Thisiswhatitmeans added to the form of Good Council who lines up in the KZN Breeders Mile at Hollywoodbets Greyville on Sunday.
Former jockey Piet Botha doesn’t look a day older than when he was a jockey back in the eighties of the last millennium. Taking on the best during Champions Season for the first time will have been a learning curve for the future but Papillon Blu certainly paid her way as she racked up her second win, first race out of the maidens, to round off the meeting. One never knows if Andrew Fortune is sitting with a ton in hand or an empty gas tank such is the way he rides. This tank was full crossing the subway and Papillon Blu floated home on gossamer wings.
