The beautifully-bred Gary Rich-trained Oasis Dream gelding Allaroundtheworld gave the Hollywood Syndicate the first leg of a double today and he was well ridden by Calvin Habib (Candiese Lenferna Photography)
There is an old adage in racing that “pace is everything” and a classic case in point was seen on the Hollywoodbets Greyville poly today (Wednesday) when the Gary Rich-trained Allaroundtheworld swept through to put The Hollywood Syndicate just six wins away from their 600th career win.
Later, the Hollywood Syndicate made it number 595, so are now just five wins away from number 600, which will come with bonus rewards.
The trainer, jockey, groom and commentator of their 600th win will all be rewarded.
This creates plenty of excitement as it is a reward for a victory but also for being in the right place at the right time.
The 600th win will see a bonus reward from Hollywoodbets of R10,000 to the trainer, R10,000 to the jockey, R2,500 to the groom and R5,000 to the winning commentator.
In the fourth race over 2000m on the Hollywoodbets Greyville poly today, Cod Of Conduct was driven into the lead from draw from draw five, but he became lit up in the process and was unable to be restrained.
Code Of Conduct had soon pulled himself into a big lead.
This situation often leaves the jockey of the second-placed horse in a quandry as he or she would not want to let the leader get away too far, but also needs to keep something in reserve for his own mount.
However, considering Code Of Conduct folded tamely at the top of the straight, the rider on the next horse in line, Circle Of Grace, went too fast and this set it up for the horse following him, the Gary Rich-trained Hollywood Syndicate-owned Allaroundtheworld.
Allaroundtheworld is superbly bred and relished getting that fast pace.
He was bred, and initially raced, by Drakenstein Stud.
He is by top Juddmonte-owned sire Oasis Dream, who won three Gr 1 sprints in England and has sired 27 Gr 1 winners himself.
Allaroundtheworld is out of the SA-bred Gr 1 winner by Mambo In Seattle, Same Jurisdiction.
He was still a maiden after seven starts with Justin Snaith and was consequently put on a BSA Online Sale in March 2022 and bought for R80,000 by the Hollywood Syndicate.
He was still a maiden after a further eight runs for Clinton Binda on the Highveld before being moved to Gary Rich in August 2022.
This was a good move because it soon became apparant that he enjoyed the polytrack, running three seconds before finally getting out the maidens in his fifth start for Rich in a 1400m event.
Today was in fact All Aroundtheworld’s fourth win for Rich, three of them on the poly.
Having settled well while striding out nicely behind that strong pace under Calvin Habib, Allaroundtheworld easily mastered Circle Of Grace and went on to win by 2,50 lengths, with Circle Of Grace holding on for second ahead of Blazing Light.
In the last race over 1200m, the Gareth van Zyl-trained Danon Platina gelding Stars In Heaven made it a second win on the day for a Hollywood Syndicate horse bought in training.
This formerly Gary Player and Dave Mclean-owned R450,000 horse was still a maiden after six starts, including four in Cape Town.
He was then purchased by R100,000 by Hollywo0od on the BSA February Online Auction this year.
Hollywood kept him in the Gareth van Zyl yard and have now been rewarded with two wins, the first of them in Cape Town and the second one today.
Stars in Heaven jumped from a wide draw in the 1200m handicap event today, but this 72 merit-rated gelding found good cover in mid pack under Marco van Rensburg as there were three horses running in a line in front.
He made up some gound when going down the inside, but looked to be making no inroads on the leader until an astute change of whiphand by van Rensburg. The horse changed legs and surged late to catch Professor Lupin and win by 0,30 lengths.
Trainers will be trying to time it right to have their Hollywood horse in the winner’s box for number 600 and the next couple of weeks racing around the country will have that added bit of intrigue!
Calvin Habib, Marco van Rensburg and the Andre Nel yard all had doubles at Wednesday’s poly meeting.
Habib is on 16 wins for the season at a strike rate of 6.67%.
Van Rensburg is on 19 wins at 9.55%.
Nel is on 13 wins at 14.13%.
