whipping boy
Champions Day indeed! David Ferraris pulled off a training feat of epic proportions at Turffontein on Saturday when he saddled six of the day’s nine winners and earned more than R1-million in stake money. In the process Ferraris all but ensured that he would regain the champion trainer crown. A good day for reigning champion Geoff Woodruff would have closed the gap on the front-running Ferraris, and this had seemed the likely scenario with Woodruff saddling favourites El Picha in the Champions Stakes, Badger’s Drift in the topliner, the South African Derby, and a number of others with chances. Woodruff did, in fact, win the Derby, and the R625?000 first prize, but even this magnificent achievement was completely overshadowed by the Ferraris Big Six.
Piere Strydom rode all of Ferraris’s winners. This was not the first time that “Striker” has bagged six winners, but surely he’s never done it on quite as momentous a day. Any winning ride is a good one, but Strydom will savour his performance on Young Rake in the Champions Stakes for some time. Remembered most for losing out in the closest July finish in many years, Young Rake, despite many good performances, had yet to land a graded race. When he lost five lengths in an uncharacteristically tardy start, it certainly looked as if another chance had passed him by. Strydom, though, slowly worked the gelding back into contention and got him up to pip Badger’s Coast by a head, with his July conqueror El Picha never looking comfortable and managing only fourth. The defeat of “dead cert” Fun Fly by the inappropriately named Fading Light brought more success to the Ferraris family. Fading Light is trained by semi- retired former champion trainer Ormond Ferraris, father of David. On Badger’s Drift Brett Smith hit the front fully 600m from home and the expensive colt showed he is more than just flash by keeping all challenges at bay. When Strydom brought the ultra- consistent Glamour Boy home to a brave victory and a clearly elated David Ferraris in the last it was a fitting end to one of the most enjoyable race meetings I have attended in 25 years. If this type of entertainment doesn’t bring back the crowds, nothing will. A day at the races of such quality cannot be compared with a mindless night of slotting money into someone else’s machines. On Saturday at Greyville, Durban, Ferraris raids the South African Guineas without Strydom, hoping to avenge his Celtic Grove’s defeat by Ethno Centric in the Cape Guineas. The race appeals more as a spectacle than a betting proposition.
In the South African Fillies Guineas Hoeberg and Pacific Blue look set to fight out the finish. There’ll be little to choose. Chris Snaith’s Petite Dane should win the Poinsettia Stakes. At Gosforth Park, Germiston, Strydom is likely to boot home Full Speed (race four) and Stag Man (race eight). Three-year-old Classic Lord seems a cut above his older rivals in the seventh, and All Cubed and Remembering Di look likely to fight out the third.