The champions of Africa galloped to glory in the four Grade 1 races at Scottsville Racecourse in Pietermaritzburg on Sunday as thousands thronged the Golden Horse Casino complex for the country’s biggest racemeeting for thoroughbred sprinters.

With a carnival atmosphere enhanced by beautiful fashion and thrilling racing, the balmy autumn weather brought the people out in their droves with an official attendance figure of nearly 11000 and an increased Gold Circle turnover for the racemeeting of R6.7-million.

The 10-race programme was headed by the R400 000 Grade 1 Golden Horse Casino Sprint, the top handicap event for sprinters in South Africa, and Geoff Woodruff’s star Al Mufti colt, Cataloochee, showed he is the champion sprinter in the country getting home by a narrow margin from Brett Crawford’s Jallad gelding, Tornado King.

In a post-race interview, jockey Mark Khan said he never had any doubts about the colt getting the 1 200 metre trip and added that Mr and Mrs Robert Muir’s colt was “a top horse” and “it is nice to ride horses like this.”

Geoff Woodruff said he was extremely pleased with the win, particularly for Mr and Mrs Muir who had put so much into racing in this country.

Earlier in the day Corne Spies’s Lecture filly, Rock Opera, retained her unbeaten record, making it four wins from four starts when she proved far to good for her opposition in the R350 000 Grade 1 Allan Robertson Fillies Championship. After being slow away at the start she settled in nicely as Weichong Marwing sped away on Mike Azzie’s filly, Mocha Java, opening up a good lead on the rest of the field.

But in the climb to the finish Mocha Java had little left in the tank and Rock Opera cruised up to the lead and went on to win well.

Jockey Francois Naude said he had never been worried as the filly was moving well. “I knew that when I pressed the button she would accelerate and, good luck to those who would try and accelerate with me.”

Trainer Corne Spies said he had been extremely nervous before the race because as good as he knew his filly was, the Scottsville racecourse had a reputation for getting good horses beaten.

“It is a milestone for me, this is my first Grade 1 win. Yes I was nervous but when you have an unbeaten filly like this, the pressure gets worse with every run. But she came through with flying colours and Francois rode a great race.”

In spite of his disappointing previous run, Mike de Kock’s National Emblem gelding, Carnadore, was still strongly fancied and ran a superb race to win the R500 000, Grade 1 Gold Reef Casino Resorts Medallion from Monsieur Dominique and Pagasus Emblem. He showed he is the still a candidate for champion two-year-old colt in spite of being beaten in his last race by Tiza after losing ground at the start.

Marwing and Mike de Kock said the win was partly due to the starter allowing the gelding to be loaded in the starting stalls later and, where he lost ground in his previous start, he was settled in the pens and got away well on Sunday.

The R300 000, Grade 1 South African Fillies Sprint looked at the mercy of Ormond Ferraris’s American-bred mare, Overarching, but she gave problems at the start and had to be bustled into the pens. She was slow away and raced near the back of the field in the early stages as Danie Burger’s Fard filly, Far De Vie, set a good gallop at the head of the field. In the final run to the line Far de Vie was still full of running as Overarching closed with every stride but the finish came too soon for the favourite and she became the only one of the four Grade 1 favourites to be beaten on the day.