The three finals of the KwaZulu-Natal Chapter Challenge Series,
run at Clairwood Racecourse on Saturday, once again provided high-class
and exciting racing.
The races shared the bill with the three graded features headed
by the R400 000, Grade 1 Gold Challenge where Yard-Arm produced
another awesome performance.
The 1 200 metre final set the ball rolling and Ricky Maingard’s
Fort Wood gelding, Bombadier, proved too good for the opposition.
He came from off the pace to beat Dennis Drier’s Homeonthehearth
with De Gaulle and Patrick Lunn’s Pipeline filling the minor placings.
Lunn, whose runners Heliotrope and Pipeline took the top two honours,
earning him prize money of R30 000 in the trainer incentive bonus
competition for earning the most points in the qualifying races
in the series, nearly stole the second of the finals, over 1 600
metres, with Heliotrope. The three-year-old gelding made the running
and was only caught in the closing stages by Dennis Drier’s River
Plate who gave notice that he could be above average having scored
his fourth win from five starts.
Following this pair home were California Coming and Mr Bones.
The last of the finals, over 2 000 metres, looked a very open race
but Des Egdes’s Caesour gelding, Medicine Man, who scored the third
highest points to give his trainer the third-placed cheque of R5
000 in the incentive bonus competition, ran another great race to
beat home Pelewan, Lofty’s Magic and Regal Land.
Dennis Drier had a great day with three winners coming from his
stable. He won the second race with the Model Man filly, In Tune,
the fifth race with River Plate, and the 10th with Revolutionize.
Veteran KwaZulu-Natal breeder, George Rowles, also had a good day.
He bred the winner of the first race, Rock The Rainbow and was breeder
and part-owner of the fifth race winner, River Plate.
Punters will have also noticed that the full form for runners in
races in Mauritius is now published in the official Gold Circle
racecard.