Rafeef colt All The Rage gives Gr 1 Gold Medallion winner Good For You 1kg and a beating and clinches a double for Aldo Domeyer and it was the second leg of a treble for Candice Bass (Picture: Wayne Marks)
Richard Fourie scored a treble at Hollywoodbets Durbanville today (Wednesday) and two of them were aboard progeny of Rafeef, who had three winners at the meeting, two of them putting in impressive performances.
Candice Bass scored a treble too and trained the first Rafeef winner of the day, the impressive Millstream Farm-bred colt All The Rage. He ran off a 99 merit rating in a Progress Plate having had two wins and two thirds in four races to date. He showed fine natural pace in the 1250m contest to overcome draw eight of eight under Aldo Domeyer and he slotted into a nice spot in midfield. He was up against Gr 1 Gold Medallion winner, the Glen Kotzen-trained 108-rated Legislate gelding Good For You and actually had to give the latter 1kg. Domeyer kept All The Rage in the hands in the straight, but each time he asked him he found more and he required just one slap on the shoulder to fetch Good For You, who had set the pace and skipped for home at the top of the straight. Good For You fought back when headed but All The Rage maintained his lead to win by 0,30 lengths. The win gave Domeyer a double.
The next race was a maiden over 1500m and the Lucinda Woodruff-trained Ridgemont-bred Hollywood Racing-owned three-year-old Rafeef colt Beware enjoyed the step up in trip and came from second in the running to win by a length under Fourie.
In the fifth race, a Class 5 event over 1500m, the Ridgemont homebred three-year-old filly Reet Petite had won narrowly on debut over 1250m and was running off a 79 merit rating. She was drawn nine out of ten and Richard Fourie dropped her out to last. She looked an unlikely winner at the top of the straight as she had a lot of ground to make up and she still looked in trouble 250m out after making steady progress. However, after Fourie had balanced her she took off and in the end won easing up by 2,25 lengths in a time 1,35 seconds quicker than the previous race. Ridgemont and Devin Heffer look to have another feature potential three-year-old filly to look forward to.
Another good performance on the day was by the well-bred three-year-old Candice Bass-trained Vercingetorix colt Viva’s Liberte, who remained unbeaten after two starts. This Lammerskraal-bred colt is out of Gr 1-winning Jet Master mare Viva Maria and was purchased for R2,1 million at the BSA National Yearling Sale. He is owned by Khaya Stables and came into today’s Class 4 event over 1400m off a two lengths debut win over 1250m. He ran off an 88 merit rating. Serino Moodley settled her in midfield in a one out position with cover in the small seven horse field. He crept up in the straight and when given some backhanders at the 200m mark he began to stretch out nicely and swept past the others to win by 2,50 lengths.
Another interesting winner was the Turf Talk Syndicate filly Garden Of Eden. The Paul Reeves-trained filly had won impressively on debut as a three-year-old a year ago and was aimed high, but had various issues and had tumbled from a 86 rating to a 76 today after continually disappointing. In the 1250m class 4 event she carried 56,5kg and wore first-time blinkers and a tongue tie. She jumped at 100/1 odds but made a mockery of those odds. She set off at a good pace and with her impressive stride she kept going to win by 0,30 lengths.
Fourie has now moved back into the lead in the national jockeys championship and his 45 wins, achieved at a strike rate of 25.42%, puts him three ahead of Craig Zackey, who is serving a suspension from October 3 to October 9.
Domeyer is on four wins for the season at 16.67%.
Bass is on 14 wins at 12.84%.
