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Parisian Walkway completes a superb display of resolute galloping. (Candiese Lenferna Photography).

Alec Laird suffered a body blow on Saturday morning when his big TAB Gauteng Guineas hope, Fire Attack, had to be scratched from the R1 million Gr 2 event, but it turned out to be a fine day because he won it with 25/1 outsider Parisian Walkway and for good measure finished third too with a newcomer to his yard, Aristotle.

Alec admitted to having had a day of “roller coaster” emotions.

He said in a telephone interview on Sunday morning, “There has been a virus around. We’ve had a couple getting it. Overnight, they get some sort of bug. We ran blood tests on Friday. Fire Atttack came up suspect. So we ran another one on Saturday morning and it was even higher. You’re just going to run nowhere. If we bother to use science, then we  have to listen to it. By normal accounts, he was looking great and was in great shape. But this virus is insidious, because the temperature was also within normal measures or just slightly high.  And he’d eaten up too. But we’ve had others and others guys have also, where they have a bad run and you run this test and it tells you they are fighting off a virus.”

Fire Attack had the best form in the TAB Gauteng Guineas on paper.

Furthermore, he had beaten the yard’s second string runner, Parisian Walkway, by 4,75 lengths in the Gr 2 Betway Dingaans.

However, after the scratching of Fire Atttack, Alec still had hope.

He said Parisian Walkway had moved up in the Dingaans as if he would easily go past Greaterix, but had not gone through with it, which had been similar to his previous start.

The connections had then decided to geld him.

The gelding, as they hoped, seemed to have done the trick.

Diego De Gouveia took Parisian Walkway to the front from pole position and he dicated at a good pace and with a beautiful rhythm.

Knowing that the Ideal World gelding would ideally need further, Alec was pleased to see him going at a good pace.

However, the De Kocks looked likely to have a Guineas double when the odds-on favourite Greaterix cruised past Parisian Walway under the hands on the inside rail at the 200m mark.

Earlier, Muzi Yeni had in masterful style managed to find the rail for Greaterix in sixth position in the eleven horse field from a tricky draw of nine.

Greaterix was almost a length clear at the 100m mark, but then became one-paced.

Parisian Walkway’s big stride was not faltering and he rallied to win by 0,40 lengths in the end.

An elated Alec said on Sunday morning, “It was his first run as a gelding, which is not always easy to pull off. But he was ready for a run two weeks ago. The race was cancelled, so it turned out he didn’t need that run. Diego did a great job. He gets along well with this horse. He won his maiden on him and he’s been reunited with him and the horse is running well for him now. I think a mile is his minimum and he kept up a really good tempo, if he had gone slower he would have been outsprinted by the others. If you can run a mile in a certain time … it’s all about the pace.”

Perhaps Greaterix also needs gelding or perhaps he did not stay, as he has been said by De Kock to have so much speed others can’t keep up with him at home.

Nevertheless, Parisian Walkway’s win was done in a style reminiscent of one of the best fillies Alec ever trained called Mill Hill, a courageous front-runner who kept up a resolute gallop throughout and was hard to peg back. Parisian Walkway is a chestnut just like Mill Hill was, which made the comparison more vivid.

Laird also landed third place with a newcomer to his yard, Aristotle, a Rafeef gelding who was coming off two wins over 1250m and 1400m respectively in Cape Town.

Aristotle was beaten 4,20 lengths and was folllowed home by Legend Of Arthur and Musical Score, who were thrashed by 7,30 and 8,55 lengths respectively.

Parisian Walkway gave Wilgerbosdrift and Mauritzfontein a Guineas double as breeders.

He is owned by Gary Basel, Lance Clark and Werner Volschenk and cost R450 000 at the BSA National 2yo Sale.

Alec has landed a Gr 3 and a Gr 1 with Atticus Finch and now a Gr 2 with Parisian Walkway and Gary Basel and Lance Clark have shares in both horses.

Alec said, “We’ve got a nice bunch bunch of horses and I must say thanks to the owners, they stepped up and had a go at the Sales for me and it has paid off.”

Parisian Walkway’s time of 98.59 seconds can be compared to Spumante Dolce’s time of 98.94 seconds and he could be a Triple Crown candidate.