World Sports Betting Cape Town Met (Grade 1)

DURBAN July hero Kommetdieding fought like the proverbial tiger to justify 20/11 favouritism in the World Sports Betting Cape Town Met at Kenilworth last Saturday and become the first horse to win both of South Africa’s two top races since Igugu 10 years ago. Surprisingly, he was also the first favourite to win the Met since then.

Former champion Gavin Lerena had the four-year-old handy throughout and took a narrow lead just inside the final furlong after shaking off the challenge of Linebacker, and then held the strong-finishing Jet Dark by three-parts of a length.

The Queen’s Plate winner might have been a little unlucky – he lost more ground than he was beaten by dawdling out of the gates – but on the other hand he was almost certainly helped by the time of 2m 3.8sec being the slowest in the Met for seven years.

Lerena, winning the race for the first time, said: “My horse has an amazing cruising speed and so much guts but what’s so special about him is his will to win.”

Farm sale

The Elusive Fort four-year-old’s background has been well documented in this column but it’s worth remembering that he was bought for peanuts at a farm sale held by breeder John Koster at his Klawervlei Stud and was picked out by Harold Crawford, a trainer who had spent most of his 46-year career dangerously close to the bottom of the barrel.

Daughter Michelle Rix changed all that, entering into a training partnership with her father, marketing the stable and adding her own personal flair. She is the first woman to train a Met winner.

Maybe she gets her drive from her Belfast-born grandfather who succeeded in escaping from a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp in Burma, commandeering a small boat and surviving on a raft when the boat was destroyed in a storm. He was found, more dead than alive, off the East African coast by a ship bound for South Africa.

Owner Ashwyn Reynolds, who now finds himself with a future stallion, is a colourful character in every sense of the world – his multi-coloured jacket/coat would have been the envy of even the Biblical Joseph and he refers to Kommetdieding as “the people’s horse.” Shades of Danoli!

Schweppes Majorca

Captain’s Ransom produced a truly devastating turn of foot to win the fillies’ Group 1 Schweppes Majorca Stakes for the second year running, catching old rival Chansonette in the dying strides after the latter looked home and hosed.

The Captain Al filly is trained Justin Snaith who was winning the mile Group 1 for the fifth time and commented: “She has all the gears and she would be frightening over six furlongs.”

However, his hopes for Irish-owned Kasimir in the Pongracz Cape Flying Championship went by the board when the 2019 winner failed to fire and the seven-year-old managed only 11th of 14 behind 20/1 Johannesburg raider Bohica (a son of Capetown Noir).

But stable companion Warrior flew the flag for Ireland by taking the seven-furlong World Pool Pinnacle and is now under consideration for next month’s Cape Mile. The Futura four-year-old is owned by a partnership that includes Diane Nagle, Sue Magnier, Anna Doyle, Linda Shanahan and Mick Flanagan.

“This is a group of people I am very privileged to be training for,” said the three-time champion trainer. “And the Nagles were one of the first clients I ever had.”

Attendance

The attendance was limited to 2,600 by the government’s Covid restrictions. A decade ago it was 35,000.