Dennis Drier’s brilliant Captain Al colt Captain Of All produced one of his career best performances in his swansong at Greyville yesterday when easily winning the Gr 1 Mercury Sprint over 1200m under replacement jockey Greg Cheyne, to follow up on his impressive win with topweight in the Gr 1 Tsogo Sun Sprint at Scotsville on May 23.

The strapping bay colt’s regular rider Sean Cormack was sent to hospital for observation after his mount Zacharias collapsed with a pulmonary haemorrhage in an earlier race.

Cheyne commented later that this was the easiest Gr 1 winner he had ever had. Cheyne has won three Gr 1 SA Fillies Sprints, but this was his first Gr 1 sprint win on a colt.

However, he was full of sympathy for Cormack and said, “I feel for Sean, I know what it’s like when you ride these horses and especially today, it’s a very special occasion, it’s his last run, and Sean had been with him from day one.”

Captain of All jumped well to take the lead and Cheyne said the pace had initially been sedate. However, when he saw Legilsate coming around to take it up he knew the latter would not be able to afford to slow it up and admitted the race had panned out extremely well for him from then onward.

Captain of All moved out for his run in the straight and showed an exceptional turn of foot to draw alongside the reigning Equus Horse Of The Year before powering clear to win by 4,5 lengths.

Carry On Alice did well to storm home on the outside for second as she had been caught quite far back in a race lacking a true pace.

Legislate was only a short-head further back in third. This was his first defeat at Greyville, although his four wins here, all Gr 1s, have been over distances from 1600-2200m.

Last year’s winner Fly By Night stayed on well to be neck further back in fourth, a head clear of the gallant African Dream, who behaved well again when accompanied in the parade ring by “horse whisperer” Glyn Redgrave and to the start by both the latter and trainer Mark Dixon’s wife Hayley.

Drier was full of praise for Captain Of All’s “legend breeder” Duncan Barry of Riverton Stud, who has been behind a number of Drier’s many Gr 1 wins.

Captain Of All was sold at a Klawerveli Farm Sale for a mere R100,000 due to an offset knee, but this hasn’t stopped him winning three Gr 1s under Drier’s care.

Drier said, “He’s been a wonderful horse, his knee hasn’t really worried him.”

He added that resting the colt for most of his three-year-old year due to a niggle had been a  turning point, “I think that when you have a horse of this quality you don’t want to stop, start, stop start and that’s why I said to Derek (Brugman) let’s give him a nice long break.”

Regarding the jockey change Drier said, “Derek and I discussed it quickly, Greg has had the experience of Hong Kong, he’s riding with the utmost confidence and I’m just so sad for Seany (Cormack), so sad.”

Markus and Ingrid Jooste own Captain Of All, who will now join his father among the stallion ranks at Klawervlei, which is part-owned by Jooste.

Earlier there was an impressive display by the Duncan Howells-trained Maine Chance Farms-bred Querari filly Cosmic Light, who used her exceptional turn of foot and big stride to come from off the pace and win the Gr 2 The Debutante over 1200m in fine style under Muzi Yeni. Yeni dropped her out from a wide draw but she made the ground up quickly in the straight down the inside and held off a late challenge by Rebel To The Fore, who lost a length at the start. Lala, Roy’s Goddess and Khaleesi were next best.

Later in the Gr 2 Umkhomazi Stakes over 1200m the Mike Miller-trained Waterford Stud-bred King Of Kings colt King’s Knight galloped clear under Anthony Delpech to win by a comfortable 3,25 lengths. The win gave KZN’s “Mr Racing” Bill Lambert his first ever feature race winner as he part-owns the rangy colt. Oriental Tiger and Vous Et Var were next best.

The Listed Queen Palm Stakes over 2400m was won impressively by the Alyson Wright-trained Go Deputy filly Deputy Ryder under a typically cool ride by champion jockey elect Gavin Lerena. She was the only three-year-old in the race, yet carried joint top weight so she looks to have a bright future as a stayer.

The Interprovincial series saw the KZN Falcons winning two of the four races and the Highveld Hawks and Cape Eagles won one race each.

The KZN Falcons, consisting of Anton Marcus, Anthony Delpech, Muzi Yeni, Sean Cormack and Keagan de Melo (substitute in the last leg for Cormack) emerged winners on 158 points, with the Highveld Hawks (Gavin Lerena, Raymond Danielson, S’Manga Khumalo and Piere Strydom) second on 152 and the Cape Eagles (Greg Cheyne, Donovan Dillon, Richard Fourie and Corne Orffer) third on 108 points.

The winning team members each received R12,000, the second team received R8,000 each and the third-placed team received R5,000 each.

Anton Marcus won the Interprovincial third leg, the Listed Off  To Stud Stakes over 1600m on the polytrack aboard the Stan Elley-trained four-year-old Horse Chestnut filly Pecan Nut. The blinkered grey was officially 2kg under sufferance with the best weighted horse Euphoria, but relished the poly and travelled like a winner throughout in a handy position. She drew away in the straight to beat Red Label and Resolution by two lengths and 3,5 lengths respectively. Fortitude was next best and the disappointing Euphoria found little in the straight and could only manage sixth.

In the Interprovincial first leg, a Maiden Plate over 1600m on the poly, the Sean Tarry-trained two-year-old Kahal filly Intergalactic improved on her decent debut to annihilate her older rivals under Highveld Hawks’Gavin Lerena, winning by 5,25 lengths from Sword Storm and Zara’s Legacy.

The second leg over 1600m on the poly was fought by the only to two-year-olds in the race and the Gavin van Zyl-trained Celtic Captain only just got the better of Mambo Mime.

The last leg over 1200m on the poly was won easily by the Kumaran Naidoo-trained topweight Tuscan under Donovan Dillon.

The first race of the day over 1200m saw an upset as Richard Fourie rode a clever race on the Mike Bass-trained Come Fly With Me, who is a full-sister to Fly By Night, and the odds-on favourite Real Princess was unable to catch her in the straight.

By David Thiselton