Andrew Harrison (Gold Circle)
Dean Kannemeyer did a masterful job to get The Real Prince to stay the Hollywoodbets Durban July trip after just one warm-up run and there was many doubters. But Kannemeyer is rather set in his ways as he likes his horses to quicken from off the pace and finish off their races. He learnt well from his father, the legendary Peter ‘PK’ Kannemeyer and PK’s long-time stable jockey Garth Puller who had many a supporter reaching for their blood pressure pills after a tight finish.
Kannemeyer’s colt Green Gateway was given a copybook stable introduction in the first at Hollywoodbets Scottsville yesterday. The opposition will probably not go to ‘Hollywood’ so the win is taken with a pinch of salt but the eye-catching son of Gimmethegreenlight did everything that was asked.
Bringing up the rear for much of the race, he quickened past his rivals when asked by title-chasing Gavin Lerena to win rather cozily from Mohave Prince who tried gallantly to stay with the winner. Interesting is that Green Gateway cost R2.2 million as a yearling, Mohave Prince R140k demonstrating they run in all shapes and sizes no matter their price tag.
Lerena has the Jockey Championship all but sewn up after today’s meeting. He was 12 winners clear of current champion Richard Fourie at the start of the day and extended his lead by another three by the time that he coaxed Vision To Achieve home in the sixth after making most of the running to win on Bad Medicine in the C Stakes over 2400m for Alyson Wright.
Rachel Venniker, out of action for three months after breaking her leg in an early morning fall, was quickly into the winner’s enclosure as she steered the Michael Roberts-trained Miss Kansas to victory in the opening leg of the PA. Venniker showed no signs of rustiness from the lay-off as she kept Miss Kansas hard to her task in the face of stiff opposition from Blazing Beauty and 4kg claimer Jacey Botes as Tienie Prinsloo’s filly made a smart debut for the stable.
Next Of Kin started favourite in the opening leg of the Pick 6 but the grey hardly raised a gallop as Meerkat Moon and the filly Catch A Penny fought a bruising duel up the straight with Mark Dixon’s charge scraping in by the narrowest of margins. Lerena looked to have his second winner on the card in the bag as Catch A Penny eased clear of her rival, but Calvin Habib was not looking to go away easily and Meerkat Moon stuck to his rival and came back to snatch it on the line.
As former top rider MJ Odendaal has often alluded to the fact that a jockey never forgets the name of his first winner and the name of Sneeuwitjie will be forever etched in the memory of Dezahn Louw. It was not a polished ride as the filly took a hold of the bit and dragged him off to the front, but Tienie Prinsloo’s filly kept finding in spite of drifting under pressure. Lerena did not have it all his own way as favourite Flying South encountered a few traffic problems at the top of the straight but stormed home late only to be denied by under a length.
But Sneeuwitjie dropped the Pick 6 bomb, starting at 100-1 she paid nearly R40 on the tote.
Paul and Beth Gadsby battle along with a small stable of mostly modest horses but the filly Vision To Achieve is testament to their ability as trainers. A three-time winner and two seconds from her last five starts with Gavin Lerena aboard in her last three wins, he has worked her out that the filly does not respond to the stick. Punching her under hands out over the final 400m, Vision To Achieve responded to the kid-gloves and went on to win the fifth race of her career.
Lerena flew home to Jo’Burg happy that he almost has the championship title in the bag as he rounded off the meeting with his fourth winner of the afternoon, 16 clear of Fourie, on the Justin Snaith-trained Dafnes Daughter. It was anyone’s race coming through the final furlong with a wall of horses in contention, but Dafnes Daughter powered home to put the race to bed in a matter of strides and give leading owner Nick Jonsson his second winner of the afternoon after Miss Kansas.
