Veale In Fine Form On The Poly

Veale won the first three races on the card on Monday and also the seventh and he also had two second place finishes in a total of seven rides at that eight race meeting.

His guv’nor, the many-times KZN champion trainer Dennis Drier provided him with two wins and another former KZN Champion trainer Duncan Howells provided the other two.

The Drier-trained The United States three-year-old gelding L’Ultimo got the ball rolling. He was bred by the Scribante family’s Piemonte Stud and they part-own him together with Gill Drier. Veale managed to get an easy lead in the eight horse field from a wide draw. The favourite captain Corrupt had been fractious at the start and never travelled well. This saw L’Ultimo, despite having been winless after his first seven starts, pulling further and further clear in the straight to win by 5,80 lengths from the outsider Zabadak.

Veale was fortunate to land the ride on the Howells-trained Bush Hill Stud-bred Crusade filly Mission Rocks in the second race over 1400m after Muzi Yeni had been booked off after the first. Veale sat in the last quartet and produced a strong run on the outside to beat the favourite Stealth Attack by 0,80 lengths. Mission Rocks is owned by Lawrence Pillay.

Veale made it three on the Drier-trained maiden  Blazing Light, a hard knocking gelding by Rafeef, who was having his 17^th start. He was the only four-year-old in the field and the three-year-olds allowed him to dictate at a crawl. He was thus unlikely to be caught after kicking for home in the 1800m event. He beat Dontstopmenow by 0,70 lengths with the favourite Duke Of Africa, who turned for home at the back of the six horse pack, staying on forlornly for third. Blazing Light is owned by E W Buhr, T Keating, B J Kruger, L M Michael ,L W & N J Evered-Hall and Gill Drier and was bred by Wilgerbosdrift and Mauritzfontein.

It looked like Veale was going to make it four on the trot on the Duncan Howells-trained Straight Up when he overtook the Keagen de Melo-ridden pacemaker Syx Hotfix in the next race over 2000m. However, De Melo had left a bit in the tank on the Alyson Wright-trained four-year-old Flower Alley gelding and he fought back to get up by 0,30 lengths, a good feat considering he had beaten Straight Up by 0,90 lengths last time and was now 1kg worse off. Syx Hotfix was bred by Moutonshoek.

In the fifth race over 1400m Veale had to come from off the pace and despite producing a strong finish on the Howells-trained Birdwatcher he had to be content with another second as 2,5kg claimer Siphesihle Hlengwa kept the Michael Roberts-trained Eightfold Path mare Hatta going to win by 1,40 lengths. Hatta is trained by Michael Roberts, owned by Melanie Roberts and bred by Hartley SA.

The sixth race saw Keagan de Melo making it a double as the Dean Kannemeyer-trained William Rufus provided yet another winner for the flying William Longsword. William Rufus was bred by Cheveley Stud. He brought Cape Town form and led from start to finish in the 1400m contest to win by 1,20 lengths from Gentleman’s Way. The DK Racing syndicate are the owners of William Rufus and a number of them were on course to shout the three-year-old gelding home. Bruce Armstrong, a third generation member of a staunch KZN racing family, was the syndicate spokesman in the post race interview.

The last race over 1000m saw a blanket finish but the pacemaker Iron Bark, a Gareth van Zyl-trained four-year-old Flower Alley gelding , held on under Athandiwe Mgudlwa to record his fifth career win. Iron Bark was bred by Dr. IR Heyns and is owned by GG and D Palmer.

Yesterday (Wednesday) Veale spoke of his gratitude to Dennis and Gill Drier at after he had clinched his meeting double on the Drier-trained Wylie Hall gelding Hippocrates.

De Melo also scored a double at yesterday’s meeting.