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The R2m, Grade 1 Daily News 2000 over 2000m at Greyville on Saturday turned into a battle of the Derby heroes as Grade 1 Investec Cape Derby winner Edict Of Nantes and Al Sahem, triumphant in the Grade 1 SA Derby, came together at the top of the Greyville straight.
In a bruising battle that had the balance of the field chasing shadows, Edict Of Nantes gave Brett Crawford and Mayfair Speculators a Grade 1 double after Lady Of The House out-gunned favourite Gimme Six in a controversial finish to the R1m, Grade 1 Wollavington 2000 over 2000m for three-year-old fillies.
The betting also indicated a two-horse race with the eventual winner starting a marginal favourite at 22-10 and Al Sahem 26-10 with the balance 8-1 and better.
Earlier, Anton Marcus, first call rider for owning syndicate Mayfair Speculators, was on the ‘wrong’ one in the Woolavington but he picked right this time around. He also got it wrong in the Cape Derby where he put his faith in the Australian-bred Table Bay, only to be upstaged by Frankie Dettori who caught most napping on Edict Of Nantes for his first Grade 1 victory in South Africa.
For that reason, many viewed the Cape Derby form as slightly suspect but in hindsight it has proven solid.
“What was meant to be was meant to be. I sat on his back in Cape Town and he is a totally different horse now,” said Marcus.
“I think you will only see the best of him as he gets older.
“I’m glad I could do it for Brett. I always seem to have found the second box for him. It was as if someone had put a piece of pork in the first box,” quipped Marcus, he of Jewish faith.
Marcus always had Al Sahem in his sights. Gingerbread Man, tracked by stable companion Secret Captain, set the early fractions with the two favourites racing off the rail in mid-field. The pair swept wide into the straight with Edict Of Nnates quickening just a little better and going past his market rival crossing the subway.
Al Sahem was far from done, sticking to Edict Of Nantes, but Marcus’s decision to go just a fraction earlier than Anthony Delpech proved the master stroke as Edict Of Nantes kept finding to the line, the pair separated by a half-a-length with Horizon three lengths back in third.
Both the winner and runner-up are already short-priced for next month’s R4.25m, Grade Vodacom Durban July (2200m) on July 1st and the return battle is eagerly awaited while for the balance of Saturday's field, all will be on tenterhooks.
It was not Delpech’s day as he also had to settle for second on favourite Gimme Six in the Woolavington 2000. But he was not a happy camper after being pushed across the course by eventual winner Lady Of The House, lodging a protest against the winner on the grounds of interference in the latter stages.
There was little doubt that Piere Strydom allowed his mount to shift ground under pressure to the point that exchanges got tight as Delpech, who was coming from behind his rival, found himself cramped to the extent that he had difficulty using his stick.
The stipendiary stewards ruled that Gimme Six would not have beaten the winner and the result stood.
Strydom’s tactics in the finish were questionable but he again proved himself a master judge of pace.
Much as he did in last year’s Vodacom Durban July where The Conglomerate had the worst of the draw but sent to the front by Strydom, he gambled early and took decisive action. With some sedate early fractions, Strydom went for broke coming up the hill at the 600m mark and pinched a few lengths on his rivals which proved to be the master stroke. Lady Of The House stuck gamely to her task to hold Gimme Six albeit in rather controversial circumstances.
In her warm-up for the Woolavington, Lady Of The House had finished a close-up third behind second-placed Edict Of Nantes in an Allowance Plate although she was in receipt of 8.5kg from the Derby winner.
