Grand gesture by Craig Zackey

In the dog-eat-dog world of horseracing, graciousness is very hard to find. How­ever, it does happen on occasion and this time the credit goes to jockey Craig Zackey.

Zackey rode Dorset Noble to victory in the R350,000 World Sports Betting East Cape Derby over 2400m at Fairview on Satur­day but he was the third jockey to get the ride.

Aldo Domeyer was carded to ride the Candice Bass-Robinson trained three-year-old but he didn’t make it to Port Elizabeth. The ride was handed to Lyle Hewitson but he was injured in a fall and could not ride for the rest of the day.

Zackey then picked up the ride on the 16-10 favourite who was the talk of the town. The Australian-bred son of Canford Cliffs acceler­ated past the opposition over the final 200m and went on to beat 25-1 shot Story Of My Life by 4.25 lengths with pacemaker En Gee Oh another 0.75 lengths back in third.

When presented with the tro­phy, and asked if it was one he would treasure, Zackey respond­ed: “This really belongs to Lyle and I want him to have it. He de­serves it more than I do. I just sat on the horse.”

Dorset Noble, who is owned by Marsh Shirtliff and Bernard Kantor, has only run four times for two wins and two seconds and looks a really good stayer in the making.

Zackey placed Dorset Noble in fourth position behind En Gee Oh and when he asked for an effort his mount responded quickly and swept into the lead. The further they went, the further he extend­ed his advantage.

Maidens have performed well in Port Elizabeth juvenile fea­tures this season and a close look at Joking’s form in the Listed Epol Dahlia Plate over 1200m showed she might just follow suit. Trained by Gavin Smith and ridden by JP van der Merwe, Joking carried just 52,5kg and had the beating of the other fancied filly, Via Seat­tle, at the weights. She went off at 10-1 but flew past the opposition to beat Coyote Creek by 1.50 lengths.