For the second year in a row, trainer Dennis Drier had to say farewell to a horse that had served him with distinction when he led the four-year-old Captain Al colt Captain Of All into the winner’s enclosure at Greyville after he had thrashed a strong field to win the R750 000, Grade 1 Mercury Sprint at the weekend.

A year earlier, Drier had bid farewell to one of the country’s greatest fillies, Beach Beauty.  Beach Beauty went off to stud and Captain Of All will move to Klawervlei Stud in the Cape where he will join his illustrious father, Captain Al, as a stallion.

It was a very emotional day for Drier with Captain Of All’s regular pilot Sean Cormack having been whisked off to hospital for observation after the fourth race where he fell heavily when his mount Zacharias collapsed. A top replacement rider had to be found and it was Greg Cheyne, a leading Cape rider with international experience, who was selected by Drier and Derek Brugman, racing manager for Ingrid and Markus Jooste who owned the colt.

And Cheyne filled the role perfectly settling Captain Of All well after a swift break from the pens and allowing Legislate to go round him and set the gallop. Content to play the waiting game, Cheyne kept Captain Of All under a tight hold until they swooped into the home straight where he gave the colt his head. Captain Of All cruised up alongside Legislate before kicking away to win unchallenged by 4.5 lengths.

It was a spectacular performance in a field of this quality and as the colt will now move to Klawervlei Stud to take up stallion duties alongside his illustrious father, John Koster from Klawervlei commented that he expected the phone to start ringing for mare bookings as a result.

Also running a great race was the filly Carry On Alice from the Sean Tarry stable. The three-year-old – also by Captain Al – came with a storming run down the outside from well back to snatch second place from Legislate and, had she been more in touch turning for home, she might have made Captain Of All work a lot harder for his victory.

Legislate held on for third place and, as a miler-middle distance runner, his performance was full of merit. Although he has shown the ability to quicken in the finish of longer races, he was not able to match the finishing speeds of the sprinters. However, trainer Justin Snaith will be happy that he took the gamble and will have been very pleased with the colt’s effort.

Earlier, the Duncan Howells-trained filly Cosmic Light flashed home under Muzi Yeni to win the Grade 2 The Derbutante from Rebel To The Fore and Lala with favourite Frosted Honey running another disappointing race. The Western Winter filly had run top filly Entisaar to 2.5 lengths in the SA Nursery at Turffontein but had failed in the Golden Slipper and now The Debutante indicating that there could be a problem with the filly.

The Mike Miller-trained King Of Kings colt King’s Knight skated home in the last of the Graded races on the card, the Grade 2 Umkhomazi Stakes, beating Port Elizabeth raider Oriental Tiger by 3.25 lengths while the Listed Queen Palm Stakes over 2 400m was comfortably won by Deputy Ryder from the Alyson Wright stable.

In the inaugural Interprov Rider Cup, the inter-provincial jockey challenge that is to become an annual feature at the Mercury Sprint meeting, the KZN Falcons won the competition with 158 points with the Highveld Hawks finishing second on 152 points and the Cape Eagles third with 108 points.