A resurgent Andrew Fortune is reported to be determined to go all out to win the championship he previously landed eight seasons ago – even though he parried questions on this at Kenilworth on Saturday with typical joking quick-fire repartee.
“I’m coloured and when they start paying coloureds more than R200 000 a month for working hard I will have a go,” he insisted after winning the last on Waning Crescent for the globe-trotting Neil Bruss who shortly returns to Saudi Arabia.
Fortune also told Tellytrack’s Stan Elley: “I’ve had a phenomenal season for a man who was sitting on a couch a year ago. I’ve ridden 196 winners including Zimbabwe, I’m a bit fitter and a bit lighter these days and if I was a trainer I would probably pick myself!”
Beach Goddess may well have earned herself another season in training after just holding the strong-finishing Come Fly With Me to give Brett Crawford his first Champagne Stakes success.
Crawford said: “She fractured her shin last year and they weren’t sure she was going to race again but she is a very honest filly and she has been a model of consistency.
“I will discuss it with Ian Longmore but there is a possibility that she would be worth keeping in training. On her pedigree she will get further than this.”
The race was a triumph for Corne Orffer who improvised to brilliant effect when he found the door closing, as he explained: “I was always going well but I pulled the trigger slightly early because the gap was closing and Victoria Lavelle was falling back on me. Then the runner-up was coming at me but mine kept going.”
Piet Steyn’s stable tends to make its presence felt when the ground turns soft and, sure enough, he defied the testing conditions to land a double with Mr Lover Boy and Waiting For Rain (Orffer).
He said: “When I started training I had one of the biggest strings in Cape Town but these days I have just 24 horses and when you have a small stable you need to have them as fit as you can to take advantage.“
Aldo Domeyer, who rode Mr Lover Boy, also scored on the Mike Bass pair Scandola and Rocket Master, and said: “It’s an honour to win for Mr Bass on his last Cape Town day as a trainer.”
Domeyer was suspended for seven days for interference on Ashton Park in the Pinnacle and Orffer was given the same penalty for a similar offence on Navasha in the last. His ban starts on Wednesday.
Heavelon van der Hoven’s claim has been reduced to 1.5kg as his win on the Mike Robinson-trained Illdrinktothat was his 40th and he promptly followed up on all-the-way scorer Auditorium for Glen Puller.
Last year’s Langerman winner Ready To Attack, ante-post favourite for the Pinnacle, was scratched as he has been sold to Mauritius where he will race for Ram Gujadhur.
Michael Clower
