Geoff Woodruff’s fourth consecutive victory in the Gr 1 Sansui Summer Cup on Saturday might have pundits pouring through the record books, because at first sight he looks likely to have become one of an elite trio.

Five-times SA champion trainer Woodruff, the former SA champion jockey Gavin Lerena, owner and breeder Michael de Broglio, and the seven-year-old gelding Master Sabina, combined on Saturday to win Johannesburg’s most prestigious race for the second year in succession.

Two reigning champions, Sean Tarry and S’Manga Khumalo, both had days to remember too, with five and four winners respectively, while the late great seven-times SA champion sire Jet Master had another couple of accolades added to his CV.

The Summer Cup is considered one of South African racing’s big three along with the Vodacom Durban July and the Sun Met. Woodruff looks to have joined only two other trainers in achieving four successive wins of any one of these races, unless a search through the archives reveals something other.

Trainer Fred Murray won the July four times in succession between 1910 and 1913, while the recently retired trainer Mike Bass won the Met four-times in succession between 2007 and 2010. Murray did it with four different horses, Bass did it with two horses and Woodruff three. Both Bass and Woodruff owe a lot to Jet Master for the achievement.

The Bass-trained Jet Master gelding Pocket Power won three successive Mets. The following year his full-sister and stablemate River Jetez upset him when he was going for a fourth successive win.

Remarkably two of the Woodruff horses involved in his four-in-a-row Summer Cup streak are also by Jet Master.

Jet Master gelding Yorker got the Woodruff roll going by winning it in 2013. Black Minnaloushe colt Louis The King won it for him in 2014.

Then on Saturday, Jet Master gelding Master Sabina became the first horse to win consecutive Summer Cups since the Jean Heming-trained filly Roland’s Song achieved the feat 25 years ago.

It remains to seen whether Master Sabina will attempt to emulate the greats Java and Elevation, who both won the big race three years in succession.

What makes Woodruff’s Summer Cup dominance even more remarkable is that in 2013 he filled the trifecta, plus fifth place, and he filled the exacta positions in both 2014 and 2015.

Master Sabina finished second to Yorker in 2013 to give Jet Master the exacta. Jet Master nearly achieved the feat again this year as his son Master Switch, also trained by Woodruff, finished third.

The Joey Ramsden-trained The Conglomerate finished second on Saturday and was thus denied becoming the first horse to win the July and the Summer Cup in the same year since the Woodruff-trained El Picha achieved the feat in 1999.

Woodruff has now won the Summer Cup six times and Lerena three times.

Earlier, Woodruff’s Drakenstein Stud-bred Philanthropist gelding, Singapore Sling, threw the three-year-old division wide open by beating a quality field in the Gr 2 Investec Dingaans, which included a powerful trio of Mike de Kock-trained horses. Of the latter Heavenly Blue in second place caught the eye as one who will make a massive impact in the classics.

By David Thiselton