Kleinzee was confidently ridden by Kyle Strydom and won comfortably in the end (Picture: Pauline Herman)
Kyle Strydom landed the plum ride on the five-year-old Gimmethegreenlight mare Kleinzee on Monday on the Fairview poly after Andrew Fortune was stood down.
The filly looked a virtual certainty and gave Alan Greeff a five-timer on the day when winning for the sixth time in succession.
In such a case it normally becomes harder and harder for a horse to win after each successive victory, so some might ask how Kleinzee could have been termed “a virtual certainty”, especially considering she was raised eight point for her previous win?
The reason is that she was cleverly placed in a Middle Stakes race by Greeff, which meant she not only received a 2kg gender allowance but she was also effectively at the top of one of the bands in the merit-rated-band event over 1600m.
The rules for these races is that if a horse’s rating is higher than the top band, they get half-a-kilogram for each point they are over. Therefore with the top band of 88-92 set to carry 60 kg, she got 63kg off her 98 rating minus the 2kg gender allowance which equals 61kg.
Therefore, despite having beaten George Handel over course and distance last time in a handicap over the same course and distance by 4,60 lengths, she now faced him on the same terms, and despite beating Ingqwele by 6,60 lengths in that same handicap, she now faced the latter on only half-a-kilogram worse terms.
She was thus the proverbial racing certainty, so her starting odds of 83/100 were somewhat generous.
Kyle Strydom has seemingly inherited some of his legendary Uncle Piere’s cool-headedness and rode Kleinzee as if she was unbeatable.
He steadily eased her back in the running after she had jumped well enough from a tricky draw of five out of seven.
Being in last position turning into the straight gave him the option of producing her with a traffic-free run on the outside.
Her supporters did have some anxious moments as she had quite a few lengths to make up, but once she had got into top gear she hauled the leaders in comfortably and won by a cosy 1,25 lengths going away.
An added bonus to the win is that she is unlikely to be given anything more than the minimum raise for the win as she was well in at the weights.
It would be no surprise to see her in another Middle Stakes race soon, although it would also be no surprise to see her being given a deserved break as her six wins on the trot have come in the space of less than five months.
