Silver Mountain has the enormous riches of the CTS Million Dollar (R14.3 million) in her sights after annihilating the opposition in the World Sports Betting Cape Fillies Guineas and in the meantime she could also take on the colts in Saturday week’s Grand Parade Cape Guineas.

Candice Robinson opened up the fascinating prospect of the latter option, saying: “It’s a possibility. She has a great draw (2) and there is nothing else for her before the Million Dollar. We will discuss it.”

Sadly Mike Bass did not feel well enough to come and watch his fourth Fillies Guineas triumph – one that so emphatically put an end to his run of three successive seconds – but wife Carol said: “I think this could be the best filly we have ever had.”

Silver Mountain (Kenilworth Racing)

Certainly the daughter of Silvano provided a notable highlight in the annals of two famous Robertson studs – the Mike Sharkey-managed Highlands which bred her and Andreas Jacobs’ Maine Chance which bought her for R1.3 million.

But, perhaps above all, it was a triumph for Aldo Domeyer who buried the demons that threatened to destroy him. Watching him repeatedly, and professionally, looking back to his left as he sought to get into a position without murdering the opposition, it was hard to believe he had been feeling under severe pressure ever since the Choice Carriers four weeks earlier.

“There was a lot at stake for me and I’d been having sleepless nights,” he revealed. “I’d also been struggling to eat and drink and I lost so much weight as a result.”

He turned to religion and there, apparently, he found salvation – “I prayed and prayed, and that gave me the sense of calmness I was looking for.”

He certainly had it when he turned for home – “It was then just a question of choosing the gap and, when I did, she kept extending away from them while I was looking at the big screen waiting for Bela-Bela. But she didn’t come and, even if she had, my filly had too many answers.”

Seemingly the nerves are now dead and buried and not even the prospect of collecting a R600 000 percentage on January 23 is going to bring them back: “All the money in the world couldn’t bring me more happiness and satisfaction than winning this Fillies Guineas.”

Discussions on future plans will also take place between Glen Kotzen and his former bosses Ralph and Val Rixon following 100-1 chance Our Destiny’s second, albeit five lengths back. “She is bred to be a sprinter,” said a beaming Kotzen. “But I’m jumping with excitement. Everybody kept saying ’why are you running her?’”

The Bass team also has to decide on plans for third-placed Taffety Tart (Grant van Niekerk: “Again no excuses”) while Anglet, a neck away fourth, would have finished a whole lot closer had Raymond Danielson not been forced to ease to avoid Gareth Wright. He was unshipped near the 1 000m mark as Valediction was squeezed and clipped Silver Mountain’s heels.

Indeed this was why Domeyer couldn’t find Bela-Bela (fifth) on the big screen. “Valediction fell in front of me,” reported Piere Strydom who won the last two races for Justin Snaith. “Maybe I would have finished second but the winner was way too good.”

Anton Marcus on seventh-placed A Time To Dream also had a hard luck story, saying: “My saddle slipped back and I wasn’t fully able to assist her.”

Noor was a big disappointment for the many punters who seized on her as if she was the equine equivalent of the money-blowing machine that so fascinated racegoers. Her price plunged from 9-1 to 28-10, pushing the favourite out from 5-10 to 9-10. She finished sixth.

Anthony Delpech said: “Maybe that is as good as she is but it was her first time against top fillies.”

Flying Ice (eighth) returned fatigued and, while the vets could find nothing wrong, Sean Cormack reported that something was amiss with Well In Flight (ninth).

By Michael Clower

Joey Ramsden and Wayne Kieswetter’s Ridgemont Stud operation have unexpectedly split and as a result 14 horses have left, or are about to leave, the Milnerton trainer’s yard.

The first intimation that something was wrong came shortly after 11.00am on Friday when Ramsden’s assistant Ricardo Sobotker scratched Icy Fire from the Fillies Guineas, citing ”change of stable” and leaving the sought-after Bernard Fayd’Herbe twiddling his thumbs in frustration in the jockeys’ room.

Joey Ramsden (Kenilworth Racing)

Ridgemont manager Craig Carey said on Saturday: “It’s an amicable departure and there is no animosity on our side. Joey told us that he did not want to train for us anymore.

“I think Icy Fire would have run a very good race in the Fillies Guineas but in the circumstances we didn’t think it was the right thing to run her. Who will train her in future will be finalised this week but it is likely to be Brett Crawford. He will get a percentage of the horses, some will go to Mike Bass and some to Ormond Ferraris.”

Ramsden would not comment, except to say: “I think Wayne is a superstar but other than that I don’t want to talk about it.”

Drinks magnate Kieswetter – he is the boss of Magnum and part-owner of a successful Scottish whisky distillery – has spent a small fortune buying fillies to form the basis for his breeding operation and has taken first retainers on both Fayd’Herbe and Greg Cheyne.

He sent his best horse so far, the Ramsden-trained Cold As Ice (part-owned by Brian Finch), to England to be trained by William Haggas and even forked out for Fayd’Herbe to fly over and ride her.

The businessman and Ramsden seemed to have a perfect relationship, the trainer going to Australia to buy fillies for the operation and Kieswetter helicoptering Ramsden around the studs for pre-sales inspections. Ramsden had long been a close friend of Carey.

By Michael Clower

Mike de Kock will leave Mooghamir in Cape Town to be prepared for next month’s Investec Cape Derby after the 15-10 favourite put his sickness problems behind him under Anthony Delpech in the WSB Support Handicap at Kenilworth on Saturday.

Mooghamir (Kenilworth Racing)

De Kock said: “He is a horse with ability but he is also a cougher – he was coughing for a year – so I decided to get him out of Jo’burg early to see if that would help, and it has. He is a real galloper and his stamina kicked in at the death.”

Sean Tarry is targeting the Betting World Cape Flying Championship with Carry On Alice who shaded 14-1 shot Cuvee Brut by the minimum margin in the hands of S’Manga Khumalo in the Southern Cross Stakes.

The champion trainer said: “She will either run next in the Diadem (Dec 27) or the Sceptre (Jan 16). She has been down here (with Eric Sands) for about two and a half weeks. I have six here at the moment and I will bring down another four or five.”

Brett Crawford will aim the runner-up in the Sceptre, reasoning “six furlongs is what she wants.”

The in-form Dean Kannemeyer is fully aware that 92 is a low rating for a Cape Flying contender but Captain Alfredo made it three on the bounce under Grant Behr in the Southeaster.

Kannemeyer said: “This is a speed horse and he has a lot of potential. I will talk to Fred Crabbia about it and we will have a look at the Cape Flying.”

By Michael Clower

Top jockey Muzi Yeni celebrated his birthday in style at Scottsville yesterday when riding a four-timer, while trainers Kumaran Naidoo and Duncan Howells both clinched trebles. The Gold Circle and Witness newspaper charity race day also featured the KZN Summer Chapter Challenge Final which was won by the classy Charles Laird-trained Split The Breeze brilliantly ridden by Anthony Delpech.

The Pietermaritzburg Community Chest and the KZN Blind and Deaf Society benefitted from the meeting.

In the Chapter Challenge Final, the four-year-old Rathmor Stud-bred Brave Tin Soldier gelding Split The Breeze had it all to do carrying 62kg off a merit of 94 and having to jump from an unfavourably high draw of 13.

Split The Breeze (Nkosi Hlophe)

Delpech dropped him out, as was the plan, and the horse then steadily crept up through the centre until diving through a gap towards the inside which saw him drawing level with the fancied Tony Rivalland-trained Highway Explorer. He then fought off the latter’s attentions to win by a short-head, with the Chris Erasmus-trained Panza staying on well to be just a quarter-of-a-length further back in third. The James Goodman-trained Piano Man and the Doug Campbell-trained Fire The Rocket were fourth and fifth respectively.

Split The Breeze, owned by Alesh Naidoo’s The Fire Racing Trust, is lightly raced but has now won four of his ten starts.

Delpech felt he had a lot of horse underneath him as they entered the business end but said by the line Split The Breeze had “had enough”, so it remains to be seen whether he will go further (he finished fourth in the Listed KZN Guineas Trial last year).

The Summer Chapter Challenge Final qualifying series winner was the admirably consistent Paddy Lunn-trained seven-year-old mare Quintella on 36 points. The Chris Erasmus-trained Teppanyaki was next best on 34 points and the Campbell-trained Fire The Rocket third on 26 points.

Trainer Tony Rivalland and his loyal owner Mary Liley still left yesterday’s meeting happy despite Highway Explorer having narrowly failed to clinch them a Chapter Challenge Final double (they won the 1600m final together on Friday night at Greyville with Diamond King). However, they combined earlier yesterday to win the third race over 1200m with the New Zealand-bred first-timer Global Flyer, a smart looking gelding by Stravinsky who was ridden by Brandon Lerena.

Yeni won the first over 1200m on the Howells-trained Trippi colt Treasure Hunter, who is out of the Gr 1 Allan Robertson-winner Gee Pee S. He followed up on equally promising Howells-trained Elusive Fort filly, Elusivenchantment, who won the second easily and impressively. Yeni later won on the Colin Scott-trained Burrwood and the Howells-trained Tiptol.

Two of Naidoo’s trebles were ridden by Tristan Godden and one by Delpech.

By David Thiselton

The fourth career win of the superb looking Tony Rivalland-trained five-year-old New Zealand-bred gelding Diamond King was a long time coming (21 months after his third win) and it was fitting it happened in the KZN Summer Chapter Challenge final at Greyville on Friday night. Later the Gavin van Zyl-trained Silver Spring was just as deserving a winner.

The meeting was delayed for a long time by jockey Jarred Samuel’s terrible fall near the finish of the fourth race, but the good news is that he has escaped without any head injury or broken bones, although he was still on a ventilator early yesterday and was due to be brought out of sedation.

Diamond King (Nkosi Hlophe)

Diamond King, owned by stalwart KZN owner Mary Liley and bred by Sir Patrick and Lady Hogan,  is by the top sire More Than Ready and not surprisingly was expensively bought for Aus$250,000 as he is a fantastic looking specimen. He looked set for big things when showing a fine turn of foot under Brandon Lerena to win the Listed KZN Guineas trial over the Greyville 1600m as a young three-year-old. He had already shown his class before that on one occasion over 1200m at Clairwood when, after losing about five lengths at the start,  weaved through the field and flew late to finish just 2,5 lengths behind King’s Bay, who went on to win his next start before being sold overseas.

Sizeable money offers followed Diamond King’s KZN Guineas Trial win, but Liley decided to keep him. One reason is the difficulty these days of coming by a good horse and the other reason was his character. He has always had tremendous presence and is one of Liley’s favourites. His playful nature sees him often biting his doting groom Mtutu Holiwa and he likes to kick and buck too.

Unfortunately, Diamond King has always been plagued with soundness issues and but for that Rivalland believed he would have mixed it with the best.

After finishing runner up in last year’s Listed Christmas Handicap over1600m at Greyville, he benefitted from a rest on the farm and has found consistency this season.

He has often been an unlucky horse, and has suffered his fair share of interference, probably due to his racing style of coming from off the pace.

It appeared to be going awry again on Friday night. He has an aversion to the pens and is always loaded in the last line, but for some reason he was loaded in the first line this time and Rivalland believed that could have been the reason he lost a couple of lengths at the start. However, this could have played in his favour as he was then able to slot in behind the bulk of the field on the rail with only Fourth Estate behind him.

The field concertina-ed as they came up the hill but he still turned for home in second last place with about six lengths to make up. However, he than showed his usual fantastic turn of foot to get within striking distance and then under a tremendous drive from the ever talented Lerena got up to win by 0,25 lengths from the Duncan Howells-trained Baltic Amber (16/1). The Frank Robinson-trained Black Jaguar (25/1) has always been well regarded and got up for third, despite being 2kg under sufferance, and the Paddy Lunn-trained Cat In Command (14/1) and the Dean Kannemeyer-trained Last Tiger were next best.

Silver Spring (Nkosi Hlophe)

Diamond King started joint second favourite at 4/1 with the disappointing Silva Hawk, who finished well back. Last Tiger was the 22/10 favourite.

Rivalland will monitor how the five-year-old gelding comes out of the race before targeting him at the Gr 3 Christmas Handicap over1600m on turf at Greyville, although an alternate could be stepping him up to 1750m for the Listed Michael Roberts Handicap over 1750m at Scottsville on January 17. Diamond King was merit rated 89 for Friday night’s race and shouldn’t be unduly punished as Baltic Amber could well be used as the line horse.

Later, the 2000m Summer Chapter Challenge final was also won by a horse who has been plagued with soundness issues, the Gavin van Zyl-trained seven-year-old Silvano gelding Silver Spring. Jockey Warren Kennedy was particularly proud of the old warrior saying, “He is just strewn with problems but no matter what he always tries his heart out. He came into the race spot on this time.”

He started at odds of 7/1 and jumped well from a good draw before getting the perfect position in third behind his stablemate Qatar Springs. Secret Lover had got over from a wide draw to take it up before opening up a lead of a few lengths. Silver Spring got the better of Qatar Springs under the hands in the straight and then stayed on strongly when asked the question, crossing the line 1,5 lengths ahead of the Frank Robinson-trained Great Rumpus. The latter, a six-year-old gelding by Black Minnaloushe, was backed in from 12/1 to 6/1 after dropping to a 79 merit rating and running a good second over1800m on the Greyville turf last time out.

The high-flying Van Zyl yard also clinched third and fourth places with Night Shadow and Qatar Springs. Night Shadow has relished being stepped up to middle distances recently, winning two on the trot on the poly, and he ran on in eyecatching fashion. The Duncan Howells-trained Nicklaus finished fifth. Silver Spring, who has always been thereabouts recently running off roundabout an 84 merit, drifted out in the betting from 5/1 to 7/1. It was an open betting heat with Night Shadow starting favourite at 11/2 and both Great Rumpus and Nicklaus started at 6/1. Qatar Springs started at 14/1. Silver Spring is owned by John Chapman, Errol Budlender and Paul Rencken and was bred by the late Terry Silcock.

Anthony Delpech rode a treble at the meeting, two of them for Dean Kannemeyer, who also had a treble. Athandiwe Mgudlwa rode a double.

By David Thiselton