Champions Day: Bumper crowd at Intercontinental Village day.

THE name of champion horse, Abashiri, was written down in the history books when he won the Triple Crown over the weekend.

Beating the strong field by putting his head down, Abashiri not only won the whopping bonus of R2 million but also the third leg of the Triple Crown on Saturday, April 30 at Turffontein Racecourse.

In the main race of the day Legal Eagle with Anton Marcus on his back outclassed the field and showed his finesse to capture the R4 million Premier’s Champions Challenge over 2 000m in front of a bumper crowd, who dressed in black and orange to show support for Abashiri in his quest to become the third horse to win a Triple Crown. Legal Eagle’s stable companion French Navy ran on late to pip Brazuca for second place.

The Sean Tarry-trained Legal Eagle won his third Grade 1 race of the season and now stands a good chance of being named Equus Horse Of The Year.

Champions Day incorporated the Intercontinental Village Day where the communities of the South showed their respective countries’ “colours” and the day was enjoyed by all present.

In the feature race, Abashiri’s name was written down in the racing history books of South Africa when he became the third horse to win the Triple Crown. Horse Chestnut (1999) and Louis The King (2014) were the two other fine racing horses to fulfil the dreams of their owners and trainers respectively.

It was always a question whether Abashiri would stay the much longer distance of 2 450m in the Grade 1 R2 million South African Derby. The duo of Karl Zechner and Abashiri had the crowd on their feet and silent as they were solidly in last place coming through the bend. Zechner and his Lammerskraal-bred gelding had to make up some ground to beat the strong field and at times it seemed a feat too far to reach, but once again he went wide of the field coming in on the barrier and he ousted the strong challenge from Rocketball to win by a breath. The Sean Tarry-trained Samurai Blade finished third.

“This is a champion horse who has put his head down and won it for me,” said Karl Zechner, “At stages I wondered if I was doing the right thing to keep him at the back of the field, but with his pace I knew we had hit the right buttons and I thank everyone who was involved in the training of this great horse.”

Trainer Mike Azzie said, “I want to thank everyone at Lammerskraal and also my wife who has put up with me for so long, but we have done it today. I also want to thank owners Adriaan and Rika van Vuuren. You’re a machine. We love you and we know you love us back.”

Adriaan and Rika van Vuuren said, “Words are hard to find, I want to thank every black-and-orange supporter.”

Rika said, “The crowd’s support was mind-blowing!”

They then both shouted, “Abashiri!” when Phumelela CEO Rian du Plessis handed over the R2 million bonus cheque to them.