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The day, which featured the R400 000 Golden Horse Sprint as the main event supported by the South African Fillies Sprint, the Gold Medallion and the Allan Robertson Fillies Championship, was a sell-out with fashion making its first appearance at the midlands venue and hundreds of children enjoying the entertainment in the Fun Corral. The day was an incredible success with a record turnover for the Pietermaritzburg venue and a record crowd revelling in the results which saw favourites winning most of the races. Thousands shared in the Pick 6 where the net pool topped the R1,2-million mark and the place accumulator net pool was close to R800 000. The Allan Robertson Fillies Championship for juveniles was the first of the four features on the day and there were screams of delight as the 13-10 favourite, Paraca, stormed through in the closing stages to win going away. While there were screams of delight from the punters, there were sighs of relief from the connections of the Argentinian-bred filly and trainer Geoff Woodruff admitted in the post race interviews that he had begun to panic when the field raced through the 400 metre mark. At that stage Paraca, under Piere Strydom, looked in big trouble trapped behind the early leaders on the inside of the track with nowhere to go. Strydom said he too was a little anxious but saw an opening on his outside and switched the filly to the outside of the field. Once she saw daylight she accelerated past the leaders to win going away. Summer Frolic and Capture The Gold had made good pace for most of the way and at one stage looked capable of causing an upset but they could not hold off Paraca or Oceana, the latter also doing good work in the finish for second place. The Gold Medallion looked an open race in spite of Mike Azzie's National Currency having been rated highly by his stable. He had been beaten by Suntagonal and Noble Knight in the Protea in his last race and Suntagonal in particular looked capable of beating him again. But all things changed when the field paraded before the race and National Currency strode out looking a division better than the opposition. He carried himself with the presence of a champion and what was to follow in the race confirmed that. Losing a bit of ground at the start the son of National Assembly was at the back of the field until Strydom let him loose then he mowed them down with an awesome display of speed which saw him win as he liked from Suntagonal, War Lord and Trance. Speaking after the race, Mike Azzie said he had never had a horse like National Currency before, claiming him to be a racing machine who was a champion in the making. He told the crowd to keep following him, particularly at Greyville on Vodacom Durban July Day in a month's time when he predicted he would win the Premier's Champion Stakes over 1 400 metres. The South African Fillies Sprint had always looked a one-horse race with the magnificent race filly, Laisserfaire, having shown she was the queen of sprinters in the country. At 5-10 she made no mistake and in winning comfortably from Sleek Braashee and Park Lane, completed her racing career with a record of 12 wins and four places from 16 starts including Grade 1 victories in her last three starts. Laisserfaire has now been retired to stud and Sunday's victory gave jockey Karl Neisius, who has ridden her in nearly all her races, his 100th winner of the season. Then it was the big one of the day, the Golden Horse Sprint, and the 16 thoroughbreds that went to post included the best speed horses in the country. All the rage was Dean Kannemeyer's three-year-old son of National Assembly, National Title, who had been lightly raced and looked a picture in the parade. In this race it was the three-year-olds against the older campaigners and when the gates opened it was the Scottsville 1 000 metre course record holder, National Address, that was quickest into stride along the inside rail setting a cracking early gallop. The battle for honours was furious and as National Address began to tire the race became wide open with National Title, Nhlavini, Eli's Game and Hinterland all in contention. But Barend Vorster was driving Hinterland like a demon and the Badger Land gelding got up in course record time of 67,62 secs to beat National Title and Nhlavini, giving trainer Charles Laird first and third in the race. Eli's Game ran a great race for fourth place ahead of National Address. The three-year-olds finished first and second with Hinterland confirming that up to 1 400 metres, he was a serious contender in any company. |