David Thiselton

VETERAN TRAINER ROY MAGNER won the Spring Spree Stakes two years ago with the five-year-old gelding Prince Of Kahal and repeated the feat at Turffontein Inside on Saturday with another five-year-old gelding Vaseem.

The race was a Grade 3 in 2019 but has been downgraded to a Listed event.

However, Magner is hoping the Klawervlei Stud-bred Vaseem can follow in the footsteps of the Clifton Stud-bred Prince Of Kahal as the latter went on to record a feature race hattrick in 2019 by winning the Grade 2 Joburg Spring Challenge over 1450m and the Listed Golden Loom Handicap over 1000m in his next two starts.

Both Prince Of Kahal and Vaseem are testimony to Magner’s training skills as it is not easy to get progression out of a five-year-old. 

Vaseem in fact recorded a hattrick of victories on Saturday having finished second and third in his first two starts for the Magner yard.

Magner spotted Vaseem on a BSA Online auction and told Durban owner Andre van Bassen they “had to get him.”

Vaseem was secured for R90,000 and Andre and his attorney daughter Teegan are now the joint-owners.

Magner was first attracted to Vaseem because he is by the boom sire Vercingetorix.

Magner was trainer of the Robert Chung-owned Vercingetorix colt One Way Or Another who annihilated the useful Flying Carpet by 5,75 lengths on debut over 1200m on October 1 last year with the rest of the field beaten 10,25 lengths and more. One Way Or Another is currently in England, one of the legs of his long and laborious journey to race for Chung in his home country of Hong Kong.

Magner continued, “Vaseem had some very good early form but obviously had a few niggles, so I thought we could take him on as a challenge to get him back on the winning trail. The thinking was he was from the yard of a very good trainer, but in such a big yard a horse can occasionally fall through the cracks. It has turned out well.”

Vaseem’s last three runs before the sale saw him beaten a combined total of 24.5 lengths but Magner got to work on the few “little niggles” he found and the horse has turned the corner in no uncertain terms. 

Magner is eyeing more features and said, “As long as his merit rating does not go too high there are some nice races for him.”

Muzi Yeni was aboard Vaseem on Saturday and his regard for former Zimbabwean champion trainers must have gone up yet another notch.

Yeni had a memorable partnership last season with War Of Athena, trained by three-times Zimbabwe champion trainer Paul Matchett.

Magner was also a three-time Zimbabwe champion trainer.

Yeni rousted Vaseem out of the stalls from a draw of eight out of eight in Saturday’s 1200m event around the turn on the tight track. A gap fortuitously opened behind the two early leaders Mr Flood and Chief Of State and he found himself on the rail just past the 1000m mark. Yeni got to work coming off the false rail at the 500m mark and Vaseem responded superbly to overtake Mr Flood by the 300m mark. The leader at that stage was Visiway, who began to fade, and Vaseem then just needed to keep Mr Flood at bay, which he did gallantly to win by 0,70 lengths. It was a good run by the runner up who off a 119 merit rating had to give 100 rated Vaseem 9.5kg.

Vaseem’s merit rating has gone up five points as he beat the line horse Visiway by 2,10 lengths.