London Call has never been an easy horse to train but Mark Dixon and wife Hailey have persevered and the Kahal gelding posted the seventh win of his career in only eleven outings when winning the Marula Sprint (Non-Black Type) at Scottsville yesterday.

London Call (Nkosi Hlophe)

The seven wins have been punctuated by some lengthy breaks and yesterday’s victory came off a three-month spell as Brandon Lerena kept his mount running strongly to the line to easily hold off fellow top weight Barbosa and Sea Fever, a whisker separating the two stable companions.

With very little rain over the past few weeks, Scottsville was riding fast and Lerena had London Call up with the pace throughout, but it was only inside the final furlong that he really got to work with London Call responding gamely to his urgings.

It was a quick double for Dixon who had earlier saddled the consistent Caribbean Day for his fourth victory for owners Blake and Cathy Richard. Although this was only his fifth win from 38 starts, Caribbean Day has been a soldier, placing 18 times for a return of over R400k.

Yesterday’s win came at the expense of some useful younger rivals as Keagan de Melo took the shortest way home off the false rail to easily held off the attentions of the late-charging Capel Top with favourite Monte Christo a well-beaten third.

Mr O’Neill, back in blinkers after his narrow previous victory, notched the third win of his career when comfortably seeing off the opposition in the Soccer 6 Handicap. It took time and gelding for Dean Kannemeyer’s charge to realise the promise he had shown early in his career – at his second start being touched off by Saturday’s Gr 1 Investec Derby runner-up Zodiac Ruler in a race that he could easily have won had he had his mind on the job.

With Champions Season looming, Mr O’Neill may well be a name for the notebook.

By Andrew Harrison