Horseracing highlights from this past weekend – who to keep an eye on and some impressive wins…
The most significant happening was the closing down of Clairwood Park after 93 years of racing - a sentimental time for enthusiasts who have enjoyed quality racing at the picturesque facility over the years. Future KZN fixtures will now be concentrated at Greyville and Scottsville. The best speed figure at the final meeting came in the first race where a whole bunch of quality horses were engaged, with Tripandie scoring 102. Even if the score may prove to be a touch high, it's still likely to turn into a key maiden contest and punters should follow horses coming out of that race.
Flamingo Park is seldom on our radar, but that was the venue for a festival of better than usual quality racing on Saturday. Anger has previously run as high as 99, which is a stratospheric number for the red dirt at Kimberley, and he duly romped home in the Betting World Sprint, scoring 91+. This was a fourth successive win for the temperamental Corne Spies trained gelding who seems invincible at that centre.
Best efforts at Turffontein came from sprinters De Var Hyt (s/s 100) and Malachite (s/s 97). The former rectified a sequence of second places to clinch a sixth career win in a MR 90 handicap, whilst Malachite continued the hot form of the super-professional Johan Janse van Vuuren stable.
Heavy ground tested the fitness of competitors at Kenilworth with tough Jet Supreme holding off the late surge of stable mate Acrostar in the Final Fling Stakes. Other notable performances came from good handicapper Ashton Park (s/s 104), game course and distance specialist Silver Bluff (s/s 97) and promising youngster Double Whammy (s/s 93) who held off the well-bred and heavily-punted first timer Cold As Ice (s/s 92) who battled gamely from an unfavourable draw and will make amends next time out.
