The Johan Janse van Vuuren-trained Barbaresco was well in at the weights in a MR 96 Handicap over 1600m at Turffontein Standside on Saturday and he duly ran out an effortless winner (JC Photos)
The Pick 6 had 6,339.71 successful tickets at Turffontein Standside on Saturday as the meeting was dominated by favourites and no fewer than 74 punters shared the Hollywoodbets Punters Challenge jackpot prize of R650,000 for managing to select all nine winners.
The most prominent winner was the Johan Janse van Vuuren-trained Gimmethegreenlight gelding Barbaresco.
Barbaresco had been kept to sprints until the running of the Gr 3 Got The Greenlight Stakes over 1400m on January 13 at Turffontein Standside.
At odds of 33/1 he ran a 1,10 length second in the latter race to the superstar gelding Main Defender when receiving only 2kg.
That was his first run as a gelding.
Due to a condition of the Got The Greenlight Stakes he was not allowed to be raised more than three points by the handicappers.
However, he beat third-placed Hotarubi by more than three lengths in the Got The Greenlight and the latter was later raised to a 116 merit rating when finishing second in the Gr 2 TAB Gauteng Guineas.
As Barbaresco only ran off a 94 merit rating an argument could be made that he was more than 10kg well in.
He did not disappoint and is now a Gr 1 TAB SA Classic bound.
On Saturday, Ryan Munger was recommended by Janse van Vuuren’s suspended first call jockey Gavin Lerena as the right man for the job.
Munger, out on a stint from his new home of Canada, positioned the gelding perfectly in about fifth position. one out with cover after jumping from draw 4 in the nine horse field.
His task had been made easier by the scratching of topweight Silent War at the start.
Barbaresco took quite a keen hold, but maintained his good position.
Whispers Of War led at a fair pace and Tirpitz in a one out and one back position provided cover for Barbaresco.
Munger took no chances and switched his mount outward at the 400m mark.
He began moving up strongly in the hands.
He had hit the front by the 400m mark and galloped on full of running to win by 2,50 lengths without Munger having to use the stick.
Munger thanked Lerena afterwards for putting his name forward and giving him a lot of insight into the horse.
He said, “The main thing was just to get him relaxed and let him finish off his race. He actually jumped very nicely but I didn’t restrain him too much, I got into a nice position. You know riding top horses is simple … you just give them a clear run at the top of the straight and if they good enough they do it, and that is what he did today.”
Janse van Vuuren’s chief owner Laurence Wernars bred Barbaresco and owns him in partnership with Rikesh Sewgoolam.
Van Vuuren said, “We have always known he is a helluva nice horse and in his second start when he was beaten by Sandringham Summit I was devastated because I didn’t want to know that day … even after that race I said to Laurence I would want a rematch next week, because that is how much we thought of this horse from the beginning. I was heartbroken when I had to geld him after his fourth start because he was getting a bit heavy. The main reason he was not in the Gauteng Guineas was because his comeback run against Main Defender was too close to that race. He has really done well, but I still don’t think he is 100% ready for a race like the SA Classic, he is still very, very immature at home and wants to pull at the wrong time and even today he was relaxed for the first half of the race but in the second half wanted to get on with it. But he will learn in another two or three races and we are most likely to take our chances in the Classic, I just hope he doesn’t draw on the outside … that will help us a lot.”
