Wilgerbosdrift SA Fillies Classic (Group 1)

TAB SA Classic (Group 1)

GIMME A Nother stretched her unbeaten run to six with a mightily impressive performance in the Wilgerbosdrift SA Fillies Classic at Turffontein last Saturday.

The daughter of Gimmethegreenlight was almost unbackable at 3/10 but JP van der Merwe’s mount never looked in the slightest danger as she slammed stable companion Silver Sanctuary by four and a quarter lengths.

Just as remarkable is her female line - arguably the strongest in the formidable armoury of Mary Slack and her daughter, Jessica Jell – as she is the daughter of dual Empress Club winner Nother Russia while her grandam is the great Mother Russia, winner of 13 races including four Group 1s.

Mike de Kock, who trained all three, was in reflective mood in the winner’s enclosure, admitting: “It’s nice to have these horses but there is a lot of expectation and they put years on you.

Young buck

“When you are a young buck you are a bit more ballsy and you deal with it better but I’m getting a bit old for this kind of thing (he was 60 on Valentine’s Day).”

But the master is still up for a challenge and he had little hesitation in nominating a clash with the older horses in the Empress Club on April 6th in preference to the Oaks.

“She looks like she might be even better than the grandmother but she has to take on older horses before we get too carried away.”

Some in South African racing seem to believe they have a direct line to the Almighty and last year’s Durban July-winning jockey Kabel Matsunyane is one of them.

After leading virtually throughout to land his 50th winner of the season on 10/1 surprise packet Purple Pitcher in the TAB SA Classic, he said: “God was definitely with me today. When I saw that the pace was a bit sedate, I wasn’t shy to go to the front. It is never ideal to take the lead from draw one but when they give it to you on a silver platter ….”

The son of Australian-bred New Predator, Purple Pitcher is trained by Robyn Klaasen who said: “He was disappointing in the Guineas but this race was always his goal.”

Wilgerbosdrift H F Oppenheimer Horse Chestnut Stakes (Group 1)

PAUL Peter, in the news for all the wrong reasons recently, struck with the strongly-fancied Main Defender in the Wilgerbosdrift H F Oppenheimer Horse Chestnut Stakes which was delayed for 40 minutes by a savage thunderstorm.

The son of the Jessica Harrington-trained Pathfork was the only three-year-old in the field and apparently his trainer had doubts about running him.

“This horse can run and the plan was always the Horse Chestnut but when I saw the field I thought ‘what am I doing here?’” admitted Peter. “Princess Calla (the 18/10 favourite who finished third) had almost won more Group Is than my horse had won races.”

Seemingly, though, a bigger point at issue was rider Calvin Habib – in particular his handling of Main Defender on the horse’s last start when he started odds-on and was beaten into third.

“Everybody wanted to hang Calvin after that last race – and they threw him to the dogs,” the trainer related. “But we had God on our side (another one!), Calvin learned from his mistake and I thought he rode a superb race here.”