The three-year-old Joey Ramsden-trained Western Winter gelding Attenborough scored a victory at Scottsville on Sunday in the Listed In Full Flight Handicap over 1100m which could prove to be of importance to more than just the connections and there were some other notable performances on the day too.

Attenborough is owned by Mayfair Speculators who provided some important news yesterday about two other SA Champions Season three-year-olds campaigners, Table Bay and Just Sensual, who were surprise scratchings from the Gr 2 Daisy Guineas and Gr 2 Daisy Fillies Guineas fields respectively.

Derek Brugman, racing manager of Mayfair Speculators, said of Table Bay and Just Sensual, “We just didn’t want to start their campaigns over a mile and have looked for shorter races to bring them back.”

Attenborough was held up off the pace by Anton Marcus on Sunday before running on strongly to beat a competitive field by one length going away.

Importantly, he did it from the very outside draw of 16 in the 16 horse field, a draw which in the past has often been seen to be impossible to win from.

Last year a measure was taken at the Festival Of Speed meeting, which features four Gr 1 races, to bring the inside rail inward in order to alleviate the draw bias. However, this meant the field sizes had to be reduced to 14 runners. Attenborough’s win went some way to proving that this year these measures will not be necessary.

From the connections point of view Attenborough’s win was a tremendous preparation for the Gr 1 Tsogo Sun Sprint over 1200m, specially as it was his first run after gelding. Marcus confirmed riding the horse “cold” looked to be the secret to him. He won off a 101 merit rating and faces a maximum raise of eight points, but should get away with less as there was a blanket finish for second led by the Brett Crawford-trained three-year-old Purple Tractor who carried 52kg as opposed to Attenborough’s 56kg. Of the Tsogo Sun potential winners, the four-year-old Crawford-trained Search Party showed good cruising speed from a wide draw of 14 off his 106 merit rating and stayed on well for a 1,5 length fourth. He looks likely to come on from the run too.

Keagan De Melo (Nkosi Hlophe)

The next race was the Gr 3 Strelitzia Stakes over 1100m for two-year-old fillies and was marred by a false start. However, encouragingly the outside drawn horses stuck to their stations and the winner and runner up both came from that side of the track. The Duncan Howells-trained Antonius Pius filly Neptune’s Rain won in fluent style under Keagan de Melo to beat the Ramsden-trained Made In Hollywood by 1,25 lengths. Both of these horses put their hands up for the Gr 1 Allan Robertson Championship.

Cape trainer Vaughan Marshall and his stable jockey MJ Byleveld then scored a feature double, winning the Gr 3 Godolphin Barb Stakes for two-year-olds over 1100m by a length with the Jay Peg colt Woljayrine and then the Gr 3 Poinsettia Stakes over 1100m with last year’s Allan Robertson winner The Secret Is Out. These two races proved horses could win from any draw as Woljayrine was drawn on the extreme inside in one and Captain Al filly The Secret Is Out was drawn on the extreme outside in 14. Woljayrine showed good cruising speed and quickened well but as a maiden he was receiving 4kg from both the runner up Sir Frenchie, who ran on well, and third-placed Varallo, who jumped sideways into the starting gate and lost his unbeaten record.  The Secret Is Out showed pace throughout and kicked well in the finish. The Paul Gadsby-trained Visionaire filly Vision To Kill showed she can mix it with best by running on strongly for a 0,5 length second, although she was receiving 3kg from the winner. The US$500,000 CTS Sprint winner Live Life made a good KZN debut to run third.

Veteran KZN track manager Ralph Smout has not been in his current specialised role as the dedicated Scottsville track manager for long and his nous already appears to be making a difference. Hopefully, the notorious  Scottsville draw bias will soon be confined to the memory banks.

By David Thiselton