Bishop’s Bounty is back on track for the R2.5 million Lanzerac Ready To Run on November 19 after flooring the odds laid on Rodney in the All To Come Graduation Plate at Durbanville on Saturday.
Apparently little went right for Michael Leaf’s colt when only fourth of five behind stable companion Sergeant Hardy in the Cape Nursery but, despite drifting from 28-10 to 5-1, he responded well to Richard Fourie’s urgings to hold the favourite by a neck.
“It was a game, gutsy performance and I was surprised to win – he has only had one gallop since the Nursery in May,” said Justin Snaith. “The Ready To Run has been his aim since the day we bought him and, although he is a full brother to Red Ray, I don’t believe he is a sprinter.”
This was the fastest of the five races run over 1 200m and significantly Vaughan Marshall rates third-placed Rock Of Africa who was receiving 3kg – “Things didn’t work out for him but, if they had, the others wouldn’t have beaten him,” said the Milnerton trainer.
Saturday was, according to those whose memories go back furthest, the first time that the country course has ever staged a ten-race card and Snaith took half of it to record his first Durbanville five-timer and boost his staggering strike rate which is running at over five winners a week this season – or 267 a year!
Fourie rode four of the stable’s winners while in the Raymond Davies Allowance Plate Donovan Dillon took over on 11-1 shot A Time To Dream who returns for the Diana Stakes on October 9. “She did it quite easily but she still needed the run,” reported the rider.
Although the appropriately-named Overshadow (who looked an absolute picture) completed the quintet in the Gillian Dempsey Handicap, the one to note from this race is surely runner-up Star Chestnut who finished like a train, making up five lengths in the final 300m, and would probably have won in another five strides.
Candice Bass-Robinson is considering the Choice Carriers Championship on October 29 for Live Life who led a furlong and a half out under Grant van Nierkerk to justify 22-10 favouritism in the Racing. It’s A Rush Handicap. The R2.5 million purchase is a half-sister to the 2014 Choice Carriers winner Cold As Ice.
“We are very excited about this filly,” said the trainer who has signed a sponsorship deal with World Sports Betting. “She has a lot of speed so I don’t know how far she is going to get. We will try 1 400m and, if she doesn’t stay, we will have to stick to sprinting.”
Glen Kotzen has already earmarked lot 95 in the CTS Ready To Run Sale on October 15 because the Philanthropist colt is a half-brother to Cape Fillies Guineas winner In The Fast Lane and his Met fourth Light The Lights as well as a full brother to Party Crasher who accelerated like a good’un when she finally got Greg Cheyne’s message in the opener.
“Party Crasher is an awesome filly with a beautiful action and a pedigree to die for,” enthused her trainer.
MJ Byleveld was, somewhat understandably, praising the benefits of modern surgery after he bounced back from last month’s knee operation to score on the Marshall-trained Kenny Trix in the Racing Association Maiden – “I was back on a horse only three weeks afterwards,” he related.
Snaith and Dennis Drier may be the two burning up the turf this term but neither can match the strike rate of Geoff Woodruff. The five-time champion is a bit further down the log but the Aldo Domeyer-partnered New Caledonia put him in double figures and kept his win-runner ratio at better than one in three.
Michael Clower
