Nobody who knew otherwise would have believed the Bridget Stidolph-trained Global One mare Samoa was a couple of months away from being an eleven-year-old as she stormed home from off the pace to win a 1000m handicap by 2,80 lengths on Thursday the Vaal Classic track and she gave Gavin Lerena a six-timer in the process (see picture above – JC Photos).
Samoa ran off a merit rating of 60 and was backed in from 7/1 to 9/2.
It was her 105th and final start and was an emotional victory for everybody involved, especially considering the recent passing of Bridget’s assistant trainer Sean Patterson, who would have done a lot of workriding on Samoa.
It was the first time Gavin Lerena had scored a six-timer.
However, he said if there had been one winner for the day he could have chosen to have it would have been Samoa.
He then paid an emotional tribute to Sean Patterson.
Gavin has ridden nine winners in two days, having had a treble at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth on Wednesday, and he has thus stormed into the lead in the national jockeys championship.
He is on 212 wins achieved at a strike rate of 26.67%, while Craig Zackey is on 209 at 17.80% and Richard Fourie is on 207 at 25.65%.
