David Thiselton

THE darling of the SA turf, Summer Pudding, inched closer to the 51 year-old record of Home Guard when cruising to victory at Turffontein Standside yesterday. 

When Home Guard won the Grade 1 SA Guineas at Greyville on June 7 1969 he made it eleven unbeaten runs and Summer Pudding has now won eight out of eight.

The Paul Peter-trained four-year-old Silvano filly was making her first appearance since being named Equus Horse Of The Year of last season and those who had questioned that award will have to eat their words, at least for the time being. 

She was carrying 62kg and giving away lumps of weight to some useful sorts in a Pinnacle Stakes race over 1600m, which is on the sharp side for her.

However, she never looked in danger of defeat.

Warren Kennedy placed her second behind a fair pace set by her stable companion Elusive Force. 

There were none of her customary flat spots in the straight and the strongly built bay was soon displaying her big stride as she sauntered to an effortless two length victory from Rouge Allure, to whom she gave 8kg. Mount Laurel, to whom she gave 2kg, was a short-head further away in third.

Her chief market rival Lady Of Steel had earlier been scratched but it was nevertheless a pleasing comeback.

Home Guard lost his unbeaten record in the Durban July and Summer Pudding will tested to the hilt on the last Saturday of this month when running in the Grade 1 WSB Summer Cup, Johannesburg’s biggest race.

On the bright side the weights have already been published for that Turffontein Standside 2000m event and she is due to carry 57kg having been set 56,5kg. This is presuming the current top weight Queen Supreme stands her ground. The original topweight Got The Greenlight has been scratched so Queen Supreme will go up from 59,5kg to 60 kg and the other weights will all be dragged up half-a-kilogram.  

On the downside Summer Pudding is drawn 40 out of the 44 remaining entries.

Summer Pudding is currently 5/2 favourite with the sponsors.