Who can forget the words of jockey Sean Veale after he had won the Grade 1 Gold Medallion on the Dennis Drier-trained Master Of My Fate colt Tempting Fate back in July 2020, “This horse gives me gooseflesh every time I get on his back. He is the best horse I’ve ever ridden.” 

The big horse was unbeaten in three starts at that stage, but then went off the boil and took more than a year to win his next race.

He was finally given the operation he needed, gelding, at the end of last season and this has produced immediate dividends.

Yesterday, he found a nice handy position with cover from draw five under Veale and accelerated well to take the lead.

He did not appear to be letting himself down fully and was said by the yard to have probably still needed the run.

However, he did enough to hold off the classy Captain Fontane, who was dropped out from a wide draw and had to come from last.

Tempting Fate thus landed his fifth career win just over a year after his fourth win.

Tempting Fate was running off a 108 merit rating in the Pinnacle Stakes event and was at level weights with 106-rated Captain Fontane, He beat the latter by a neck, so has not been given any merit rating raise.

Rated 108 he still has some way to go to be considered a Grade 1 Cape Flying Championship contender, but his next few runs will tell whether he is able to fulfill the exciting potential he showed as a two-year-old.     

Drier will be sending down a string of 13 or 14 horses, most of them youngsters.

The yard made no secret of the fact that the best of them was an unraced three-year-old Pathfork colt called Servilius.

They yard said with the incentives put in place by Cape Racing, there was very little to lose.

They would aim some of the horses at features, but if they did not succeed they would still be able to pay their way due to those incentives.