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African Night Sky and Bernard Fayd’Herbe had no problem confirming Winter Guineas form with Our Mate Art and Loadshedder in the Highlands Stud Winter Classic at Kenilworth on Sunday and the Derby on June 24 is odds-on to come next.
Fayd’Herbe, winning this for the first time since Pocket Power 11 years ago, sat on Our Mate Art’s tail when Aldo Domeyer pressed the button and surged past a furlong out to win rather more easily that the three-quarter length verdict would suggest.
Fayd’Herbe said: “He has come on a lot from his last run and he showed it today, winning with hands and heels. I was pleased to win for Fred Crabbia because he has been a supporter of mine since I was an apprentice.”
This was Snaith Racing’s fourth Winter Classic in ten seasons and Jonathan said: “We will now discuss whether we go for the last leg of the Winter Series but it’s 90% that we will. I think the horse will get the trip and after that we will keep him for next season’s L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate and Sun Met.”
Our Mate Art, though, will not take him on a third time. Candice Bass-Robinson will run East Cape Derby winner Dorset Noble instead although Ollivander, beaten less than three lengths into fourth, could also be in the line-up.
Lucien Africa, for whom winners are almost as rare as rain in Cape Town, had one the highlights of his career when springing a 25-1 shock on the one-eyed Hanabi in the Olympic Duel Stakes.
Nobody, least of all himself, knows why the 31-year-old gets so few decent chances. He is light, cheerful, hard-working and popular – and he can certainly ride – but this was only his sixth success in the past ten months.
He certainly made the most of this opportunity, bouncing his mount out of the pens and keeping her going to hold the hitherto unbeaten 7-2 favourite Love To Boogie by a rapidly-dwindling neck.
Africa, 31, for whom this was only the fourth feature of his career, said: “Hanabi comes out quickly and tends to over-race so the main thing was to settle her in front. I knew something was coming at the end but I just concentrated on trying to keep my horse’s head in front.”
Eric Sands, whose grooms own part of the winner, played a big part in the tactics, saying: “Hanabi lost an eye when running into a tree as a young horse and I was worried that she wouldn’t see the speed horses when they came at her. So we decided to go to the outside rail and then nothing would be able to come up her blindside.”
Seattle Gold, surprisingly allowed to drift from 10-1 to 25-1, led after 300m in the Stormsvlei Mile and kept finding more for Greg Cheyne to hold 2-1 favourite Ngaga by a fifth of a length to score for Brett Crawford and owner-breeder Ashley Parker.
This was winner 122 of the campaign for Cheyne, effectively second only to Anthony Delpech in the title race. But the former champion is ten in front and clocking up winners faster than a housewife collects supermarket points. He rode nine in four days last week.