Ice Dragon wins impressively under Philasande Mxoli (JC Photos)
The St. John Gray-trained three-year-old Lance gelding made his debut over 1200m at the Vaal today (Thursday) and was an unconsidered 50/1 shot as he was up against two first-timers who were full brothers to Gr 1-winning sprinter i.e. Geostorm, a full brother to Buffalo Storm Cody, and Stoneywood, a full brother to Dyce.
There were also some runners who had shown a bit in previous races.
However, Ice Dragon jumped well and led from start to finish.
He showed a fine action under Philasande Mxoli and when the challenges came he changed legs and lengthened his stride impressively.
He pulled away and won by 1,75 lengths, although he was green and wandered around when clear so the margin might have flattered the opposition.
He looks to be one to follow.
Gray had a double at the meeting.
There were also individual doubles for Serino Moodley and Sean Tarry.
Gray goes to eleven wins for the season and has done it at a strike rate of 15.28%.
Tarry is on nine wins at 11.69%.
Moodley goes to 31 wins at 13.72% and is in joint third place on the national jockeys log together with Calvin Habib.
