Cape Eagle gallops to his ninth win and his first Graded success (Candiese Lenferna Photography)
The six-year-old Andre Nel-trained Sabine Plattner homebred Vercingetorix gelding Cape Eagle proved himself the most consistent horse in KZN on Saturday at Hollywoodbets Greyville when landing the Hollywoodbets Durban July consolation race, the Gr 3 Splashout 2200.
Team Plattner’s Summwerveld-based assistant trainer Byron Forster is particularly close to this individual because he nursed him back from colic surgery before he had won any of his nine races.
In his previous start he was out at the weights in the Gr 3 Tabgold Derby over 2400m and can be forgiven for running unplaced.
That is particularly when considering that in his 25 starts to date that was one of only two occasions in which he did not earn a cheque.
On Saturday Serino Moodley got him into a perfect position on the rail in about fourth place after jumping from draw two as the known front-runner The Futurist set decent fractions.
He crept up coming up the hill and was climbing all over The Futurist as they turned for home.
Cape Eagle had soon powered into the lead and he found extra when challenged from all sides.
Cape Eagle had been backed from 10/1 into 6/1 and beat Atticus Finch, who ran on well from midfield, by 1,50 lengths.
Master Fuego, Mucho Dinero and the 28/10 favourite Pomodoro’s Jet were next best in that order.
The time of 2 minutes 13,65 seconds was virtually identical to the 2 minutes 13,66 seconds of the Hollywoodbets Durban July.
