Asiye Phambili powers clear under Sean Veale to land her second Gr 3 Dennis Drier Poinsettia Stakes (Picture: Julia Marnewick)
Asiye Phambili toyed with the opposition in the Gr 3 Dennis Drier Poinsettia Stakes over 1200m at Hollywoodbets Scottsville on Sunday despite giving away lumps of weight and if ever a filly deserved to win the Gr 1 SA Fillies Sprint, which will be her next assignment, it is this six-year-old daughter of What A Winter.
Two years ago trainer Duncan Howells was supremely confident of winning the SA Fillies Sprint only for Asiye Phambili to peck badly at the start and lose her jockey. Last year she was beaten a short-head in the big race when coming with her run just a touch too late.
Sean Veale was up on Sunday and the What A Winter filly showed she had blossomed into the finished article, because she carried the same weight of 62kg that she did last year and instead of being beaten 0,40 lengths she doddled it and ran out a 3,70 length winner.
By contrast she gave Symphony In White 7kg last year when the latter was still a three-year-old and beat her by 0,30 lengths and this year gave her 3,5kg and beat her by 4,50 lengths.
Asiye Phambili did actually win this race two years ago by an even bigger margin than Saturday, by 4,20 lengths, but she was carrying 55,5kg that year as opposed to 62kg in this year’s renewal of the conditions event.
Veale rode a fine race from draw five in the eleven horse field, sitting just off the pace with cover.
He switched her in for a run at the halfway mark and crept into the lead under the hands. After giving her a couple of shoulder slaps at the 150m mark she draw clear to win as she liked.
Howells said he had not had to do much with her as she had arrived back from her successful Cape Town campaign with Lucinda Woodruff a fit horse and he said she had gone into the Poinsettia fitter than she had been last year.
Asiye Phambili won three successive races over 1600m early in her career, but Howells said as a heavy horse she was better suited to the fast pace of sprints, explaning that it was hard for such a heavy horse as her to get going again after being slowed down, a scenario which was more likely to happen in a 1600m event.
He praised her owners Hollywood Racing for their handling of her, which has enabled her to get better and better.
She will face much stronger opposition in the SA Fillies Sprint, including Double Grand Slam, who was most unlucky in the race last year, and the like of last year’s winner Mia Moo and her decent young Sean Tarry-trained stablemate Green Diamond.
However, she thoroughly deserves to add a Gr 1 to the four Gr 3s and a Gr 2 she has collected on the way to ten career wins in total.
Second on Sunday was the Dean Kanemeyer-trained three-year-old Vercingetorix filly Tulip Fields with the Wendy Whitehead-trained What A Winter filly Buttercup Baby next best ahead of Symphony In White and Serengeti Sun.
Asiye Phambili was bred by Hemel ‘N Aarde Stud and her Rambo Dancer dam Cast A Spell has six black type earners among her nine winners from nine runners. Cast A Spell has a fine pedigree being by Rambo Dancer (Northern Dancer) out of the Hansel mare Flying Magic, who was in turn out of the top Danzig mare Magic Gleam, who won a Gr 2 in England as well as finishing second in the Gr 1 Coronation Stakes and fourth in the Gr 1 Juddmonte International.
The Listed In Full Flight Stakes over 1100m was also won by a Hollywood Racing-owned horse. The Clinton Binda-trained Elusive Fort gelding Kaalvoet defied 33/1 odds under Calvin Habib, producing a late run from a high draw to cut down the Sean Tarry-trained 18/10 favourite Speedman, with the in-form Glen Kotzen-trained Circumbendibus next best. There was an eyecatching run from a Binda-trained Hollywood-owned horse in fourth place too, with Richard Fourite producing a flying finish from Chapbook, who will be one to watch for the Gr 2 Golden Horse Sprint if he gets in off his 106 merit rating. The first three in the In Full Flight were merit rated 102, 102 and 103, so were also borderline horses for the latter race, although the In Full Flight winner usually gets into the Golden Horse Sprint. The local horse, the Peter Muscutt-trained 91-rated City Of Love, was fifth, just pipping the 92-rated Doug Campbell-trained Magic Surprise. Four-year-old Circumbendibus was the only one in the first six who was not a three-year-old.
There was an appropriate winner of the race before the Poinsettia, the progressive Lucina Woodruff-trained Sommerstein, as that Gimmethegreenlight-trained gelding is out of the Var mare, Sommerlied who was trained by Dennis Drier and scored one of the twelve Gr 1 sprint victories the maestro trainer had at Hollywoodbets Scottsville.
