Kleinzee cruised to her 8th win in succession, all of them on the poly, but this was her first time beyond a mile and she stayed the 2000m trip easily (Pauline Herman Photography)
The Alan Greeff-trained Gimmethegreenlight mare Kleinzee remains unbeaten in the East Cape and stretched her winning sequence to eight today.
The Henry Eatwell-trained legend Home Guard (Pent House II) holds the South African record for an unbeaten career streak, winning his first eleven starts before being beaten in the 1969 July by Naval Escort, a three-year-old contemporary to whom he had to give eleven pounds and he was beaten by just 0,75 lengths.
However, by all accounts those eleven wins are also thought to be the longest winning streak by any horse in SA history.
Kleinzee arrived in the East Cape having had eleven starts and just two wins in the strongest racing jurisdiction, the Western Cape.
However, between March 27 and today she has rattled off eight successive wins, every one of them on the Fairview poly and between distances of 1400m and 2000m.
She arrived in the East Cape with a merit rating of 73 and today (Wednesday) ran off a 108.
She opened at odds of 46/100 but actually drifted right out to 13/10 and the reason for that was because she was actually 2,5kg under sufferance with the useful 111-rated Don’t Cry For Me, whom she had to give 6,5kg, and the 2000m event was also only the second time she was running beyond a mile and it was her first start beyond 1800m.
However, it was once again an absolute cruise for her, despite having to carry 61kg.
Richard Fourie allowed her to just lope along at the back of the seven-horse field.
The big long-striding bay dwarfed her rivals and watchers began anticipating her devastating finishing run.
Fourie edged closer rounding the turn and switched her out at the top of the straight.
The response was instantaneous and she simply cantered up to Don’t Cry For Me, who had led going well within himself.
She stretched past him and was being eased at the line to win by a length with a further 2,25 lengths back to third-placed The Mikado.
Richard Fourie revealed there was no complacency beforehand and going over the trip for the first time with such a big weight had been a concern.
However, he said she was beginning to climb all over them before they turned for home and had clearly stayed very well.
He said, “I am looking forward to seeing what she can do on the grass, I don’t think she is restricted to the poly. It’s very exciting.”
Kleinzee is a Wilgerbosdrift and Mauritzfontein-homebred and is owned by Stephen and Jessica Jell.
There won’t be any thoughts of protecting her to break the sequence record as she was actually due to run in the East Cape’s biggest race, the Algoa Cup on October 18, where she would have had to face her high class stablemate Anotherdanceforme, but she was scratched beforehand after being cast in her box.
