The Camargue Stud-bred What A Winter colt Buddy Boy comes home lonely on debut (Candiese Lenferna Photography)
Andrew Harrison (Race Coast)
Callan Murray is a tall ‘reed’ of a figure. Turned sideways you would hardly notice that there was anyone inside of the breaches and racing silks. But what ever he eats, or doesn’t eat, has little to do with his performance in one of the most demanding jobs in sport.
Privy to his start at the South African Jockey Academy when cutting his teeth at the then Ashburton Training Centre where most apprentices, make that all, got their first taste of the system, Murray looked destined for an early exit given his stature.
He started off well enough in South Africa after coming out of his time before a stint in Australia where he has obviously honed his tactical skills and managed his weight.
He was in top form at Hollywoodbets Scottsville on Sunday, posting three winners, two for the Mike and Mathew de Kock partnership for whom he is attached and one for Duncan Howells.
The first of his De Kock winners came on Buddy Boy who looked to be a set-up for the yard. Stable companion Sunny Bills Ferrari set a solid gallop up front with Buddy Boy biding and Murray biding their time in the pack. But when all had cried enough, Murray brought home Buddy Boy with a storming run down the outside fence that caught all by surprise, cruising home by the best part of six lengths.
Runner-up was Dean Kannemeyer’s colt Green Glow, making his debut, who came from well back to snatch the minor money.
Given that Buddy Boy finished four lengths back to Hah Lah Lah, when both were making their debuts, Kannemeyer’s charge is definitely one for the notebook.
Murray had to work a little harder in the next but time his challenge to perfection on the De Kock- runner Officer In Command who kept rolling off a moderate early gallop.
Murray’s first winner was a romp for Perfume Power, the Duncan Howell-trained filly posting the exacta in the second. Perfume Power was off and gone from the jump and not for the catching with stable companion Austrian Beauty, having only her second run for Howells, trailing a distant second.
A rating drop and an exceptional ride by Kabelo Matsunyane saw Papa C score a second win for Howells. Turning for home with only two runners behind him in an eleven-horse field, Papa C’s chances of winning looked remote. However, Matsunyane kept the sick off of his mount who responded with a sustained finish to win going away with Ragnar The King finishing best ahead of the scrum.
It was a bitter-sweet weekend for Duncan Howells with the news of the death of Andre Hauptfleisch, joint owner and breeder of the Howells-trained star Via Africa, and yesterday’s two winners.
Howells and regular rider Kevin Shea were instrumental in the success of the daughter of Var who was crowned SA Champion Sprinter in 2013, and whose 10 wins included the Gr1 Cape Flying Championship and Gr1 SA Fillies Sprint twice.
Via Africa’s first foal was Pleasant Endeavour by champion stallion Redoutes Choice who won six races in Hong Kong and HK$7.1m (R15,2m). The second was the extremely fast sprinter In The Congo by another champion sire Snitzel who won the Gr1 ATC Golden Rose Stakes and A$1,7m (R19,5 million) and is now a stallion, covering 160 mares in his first season at a fee of A$27,500 (R300,000) each.
The third was a filly named Protea who was by Golden Slipper winner Vancouver but did not race.
And then came Saturday’s undefeated winner Autumn Glow, who topped the Sydney Easter Yearling Sale at A$1,8 million (R20,2 million) selling to Arrowfield and Hermitage Thoroughbreds out of the Silverdale Farm draft, and is unbeaten in her first six starts and five Stakes races.
Via Africa has now become one of the most important broodmares in Australia!
Howells and Gary Rich were ‘stable companions’ before the closure of the Ashburton Training centre and it was possibly fitting that the pair had winners on the day. It was a close run-thing for the Rich-trained Dawn Surprise who held on just long enough under Mxolisi Mbuto with his 2.5kg claim to hold off a late-charging Jame Lihaba on Double Olympic, a nose separating them at the line.
Terry Fripp has been the ‘shadow’ behind the Candice Bass operation during last Champions Season but he was too the fore for the stable yesterday as Turbo Twenty made short work of the opposition in the last of the day. Apprentice Dezahan Louw has been earmarked as an apprentice to follow although he did little more than a steer his mount through traffic as Turbo Twenty lived up to his moniker and sped away from his opposition inside the last furlong.
