Fatal Flaw completes a comfortable start to finish victory to give Piere “Striker” Strydom victory in the one big race in South Africa that was missing from his CV. (Picture: Wayne Marks)
When you have a horse who can relax in front and dictate and then kick away from them at the top of the straight then gatespeed becomes the key to success and the Brett and James Crawford-trained Fatal Flaw possesses the aforementioned assets plus the key of gatespeed and this allowed her to comfortably convert favouritism in the Gr 1 WSB Cape Fillies Guineas at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth on Saturday.
Having the legendary Piere “Striker” Strydom aboard was a bonus.
Striker said, “People often ask me, ‘How do you rate a good horse?’ and I reply, ‘It is all about a good temperament, gatespeed, natural speed where they travel well, and then a kick, 90% of the good ones are like that.”
Fatal Flaw has all those assets and Striker used them well.
However, he added, “The good thing is she went to the front and relaxed. The bad thing is she hadn’t run there before (it was her first time around a left hand turn) and she was green on the corner, she didn’t handle it well. I was already a little bit wide coming into the straight as she was hanging out, but at least that helped me make up my mind that I was going to go to the outside. They often go out at Kenilworth when it rains and there has been some rain, and the previous race they had gone to the outside. I thought why fight the horse to be on the inside when they’ve just won on the outside.”
Earlier Piere had used the New Predator’s filly’s gatespeed to get over from a wide draw and he then took his time to get on to the rail in front, knowing none of the principles would want to lead.
Two of the main contenders, Beware The Bomb and Symphony In White, began overracing on the inside as they waited for Fatal Flaw to get to the front and that might have been costly for them.
Fatal Flaw then dictated at no more than a steady pace, but she was beautifully relaxed, despite being green.
It was basically race over from a long way out, because Fatal Flaw possesses a terrific kick coupled with a resolute finish made very effective by a big action.
She duly kicked into a four length lead at the top of the straight and then just stayed on resolutely in the last 400m.
Strydom kept the stick away until the last 100m and then gave her four rhythmical backhanders to keep her mind on the job.
She easily fended off the main challenger, Scarlet Macaw, to win by two lengths.
It was the one big race in the country missing from Striker’s CV, so was a satisfying moment for the legendary jockey.
Piere elaborated about Fatal Flaw, “She’s not very tall for me, she’s almost on the short side. But she’s quite a strongly built filly, she’s solid, and she’s very balanced and I love her action. So you feel comfortable, she’s an easy ride.”
The Gr 1 Cartier Paddock Stakes over 1800m might be an option for Fatal Flaw’s next race and Piere believes she will see out the trip.
He said, “I think the way she won on Saturday, she wasn’t slowing down.”
He said about just giving her a couple of backhanders at the end, “You know when a horse is doing its best, I don’t understand why some guys want to beat them up. They come out of a race like Saturday better mentally, they improve, because they realise it’s not something they going to do and feel the stick.”
