Buffalo Storm Cody defends his Gr 1 Mercury Sprint crown (Picture: Race Coast)
The Tony Peter-trained Buffalo Storm Cody looked to be one of best bets of the day at the World Pool Gold Cup meeting on Sunday and he duly obliged, defending his Gr 1 Mercury Sprint title and landing his third career Gr 1 victory in the process.
He looks a certainty to be named Equus Champion Sprinter, having landed two Gr 1 wfa Sprints in the season, and the question now is whether he will follow the example of Kingdundee, who beat him in the Gr 1 wfa Cape Flying Championship, and head overseas.
His owner Kenneth Pillay of Kestorm Investments said after the race on Sunday, “We are not thinking of it right now, but we will talk to Mr Peter and see what he thinks and in the future it is definitely something we will think about. The exports are open for us now, which is great.”
Kenneth has an incredible strike rate as an owner.
This season he has had 131 runs for 37 wins, a strike rate of 28.24%, which is the highest in the country for any owner who has had over 100 runs, the second highest being Mervin Govender, whose 30 wins from 126 runs equals a strike rate of 23.81%.
It was thus fitting that the latter also had a big win on the day with the Kelly Mitchley-trained Malmoos filly Marchland raiding from the East Cape and slamming the field by 3,30 lengths in the Gr 2 Douglas Whyte Thekwini Stakes over 1600m, a race which has unfortunately only just been downgraded from a Gr 1.
Kenneth explained his racing strategy, which allows him such a high strike rate.
He said, “We invest heavily in the game and we race for fun too with the family, so we look forward to winning big races. Our aim is to win Gr 1s.”
Buffalo Storm Cody is his third Gr 1 winner and has won him three Gr 1s to date.
His first Gr 1 winner was the Gareth van Zyl-trained Vernichey, which gives Kenneth a feather in the cap because that filly gave the stallion phenomenon Vercingetorix his first Gr 1 winner when landing the Allan Robertson Championship for two-year-old fillies. Vernichey, who was bred in a partnership by John Koster and Birch Brothers, was from Vercingetorix’s second crop and went through the ring unsold at the KZN Yearling Sale. Gareth van Zyl then put together a partnership to buy her for R125,000.
The Sean Tarry-trained Bless My Stars was Kenneth’s second Gr 1 winner, winning the SA Fillies Classic. Kenneth bought this Varsfontein Stud-bred Gimmethegreenlight filly for R250,000 at the BSA National Yearling Sale.
Kenneth admitted he could not take any credit for the purchase of Buffalo Storm Cody.
He said, “This horse was not actually meant for us but Mr Peter phoned and said he had found this nice Buffalo Bill Cody. So we decided to go for it. We hadn’t even seen the horse and we got him for R410,000.”
Kenneth has two full-brothers to Buffalo Storm Cody, the three-year-old Geostorm and another one he purchased at this year’s BSA National Yearling Sale.
Geostorm is taking time to find his feet, but Buffalo Storm Cody was similar. After winning on debut Buffalo Storm Cody took another seven runs to have his second win. However, in his last 14 starts he has won ten times.
Like last year, Buffalo Storm Cody was eyecatching in his preparation run for the Mercury Sprint in the Gr 3 Post Merchants, which is over the same Hollywoodbets Greyville 1200m. He finished fast with long strides for second place in the latter race and in the Mercury had a 2kg weight swing in his favour for a 0,50 length beating by Jet Force. However, he was going to face Tenango on the same terms and had only beaten him by a short-head.
Buffalo Storm Cody jumped from draw four in the Mercury and Gavin Lerena managed to get him onto the rail in behind the horse who was always going to be the obvious pacemaker, O’Tenikwa. Tenango was sitting behind Buffalo but was the victim of a rare bit of poor riding by Richard Fourie. The latter got ten days for cutting in front of Jet Force when not far enough clear and the knock on effect saw Tenango having to be snatched up.
Fourie was aboard Questioning, who was joint second favourite with Jet Force at 7/2 while Buffalo was the 5/2 favourite.
The 5/1 shot Tenango was supported by many but that incident was costly to his chances.
Buffalo kicked well at the top of the straight after a gap had opened between O’Tenikwa and Kenneth’s other runner Taxi To The Moon.
Questioning and Jet Force chased but were clearly not making inroads quickly enough.
Buffalo Storm Cody kept going well all the way to the line.
The horse who could have caught him had she not been hampered was Asiye Phambili, whose tank-like features were charging through late. The powerfully built filly made up a lot of ground in the last 100m, but she had to settle for a 1,40 length third.
Jet Force was a 0,90 length second, meaning the form of the Post Merchants had stood up.
Questioning has been the form horse of the country recently, but he has had a tough campaighn and this was likely a bit of a flat run. He finished a 1,50 length fourth.
Cosmic Speed came from the widest draw for a 2,60 length fourth.
The sprinting division is relatively weak in Europe at present and it will be interesting to see if Buffalo Storm Cody does go overseas.
However, witrh Kingdundee soon to depart overseas, the Gr 1 World Pool Cape Flying Championship will now be at Buffalo Storm Cody’s mercy, although not if Asiye Phambili is still racing.
