EASING UP. Rainbow Bridge cruises past the post in the Grade 3 Winter Guineas and jockey Richard Fourie has time to celebrate. Picture: Wayne Marks
Rainbow Bridge won the Sun Met, now the attention turns to his half-brother Hawwaam as the search begins for the next SA Triple Crown winner.
The SA Triple Crown provides a R2-million bonus for any horse who can win the Guineas, SA Classic and SA Derby in the same season.
The Wilgerbosdri Triple Tiara will go to any filly who can win the Gauteng Fillies Guineas, The SA Fillies Classic and the SA Oaks.
Trainer Mike de Kock side-stepped the trip to Cape Town with Hawwaam to have a crack at the Triple Crown for new stable star Hawwaam so as expected, he is one of the 15 runners who will be lining up for the Grade 2 Gauteng Guineas over 1600m at Turffontein on Saturday.
Hawwaam is unbeaten in three starts with his most spectacular win coming in the Grade 2 Dingaans over this course and distance.
It was only his second start, and the son of Silvano, from a bad draw and coming from last, cut a swathe through the field to win going away by 3.40 lengths.
Gavin Lerena, who rode him in the colt’s last two starts, is back on him for the Guineas.
His next start was in the Tony Ruffel Stakes over 1400m which is too sharp for him but he displayed tremendous courage to get up close home to beat inexhaustible by a long head.
His biggest threats could come from his own stablemates – Alyaasaat and Barahin.
The latter has not raced since winning the Grade 2 Golden Horseshoe but De Kock has engaged Anton Marcus for the ride, which indicates all is well with the son of Gimmethe-greenlight.
Marcus will have to be at his best as his mount is drawn in gate No 15. Bernard Fayd’Herbe will be riding Alyaasaat who is nicely drawn at No 7.
De Kock also has Arlington’s Revenge in the field.
He has improved markedly but will be fully tested at this level.
Sean Tarry has three runners in Against the Grain (Luke Fer-raris), Vontreo (Muzi Yeni) and Zillzaal (Lyle Hewitson).
The Wilgerbosdri Gauteng Fillies Guineas looks highly competitive with the likes of Tarry-trained Celtic Sea, St John Gray’s Ronnie’s Candy, De Kock-trained Nafaayes, Storm Destiny and Dagmar, as well as Blossom, the daughter of Cherry On The Top trained by Ormond Ferraris.
Final field for the R1-million Gauteng Guineas (Grade 2) (1st Leg SA Triple Crown) over 1600m1 – 11 HAWWAAM (M F De Kock) G Lerena 60.0 – 1122 – 1 NATIONAL PARK (Y Bremner) R Fourie 60.0 – 1123 – 7 ALYAASAAT (M F De Kock) B Fayd’Herbe 60.0 – 1114 – 15 BARAHIN (M F De Kock) A Marcus 60.0 – 1065 – 14 MARCHINGONTOGETH-ER (C D van Zyl) W Kennedy 60.0 – 1036 – 2 CHIJMES (G M Alexander) D Schwarz 60.0 – 977 – 4 GREEN HAZE (A G Laird) R Danielson 60.0 – 958 – 6 AGAINST THE GRAIN (S G Tarry) L J Ferraris 60.0 – 929 – 5 APPROACH CONTROL (C Dawson) C Zackey 60.0 – 9210 – 3 OWLINTHETREE (G V Woodruff ) C Maujean 60.0 – 9111 – 13 VONTREO (S G Tarry) M Yeni 60.0 – 9012 – 9 STREAM AHEAD (C D van Zyl) K Zechner 60.0 – 8913 – 10 ZILLZAAL (S G Tarry) L Hewitson 60.0 – 8814 – 12 ROCKY NIGHT (A B For-tune) R Munger 60.0 – 8615 – 8 ARLINGTONS REVENGE (M F De Kock) R Simons 60.0 – 80Same Trainer: (1,3,4,15) (5,12) (8,11,13) Final fi eld for the R750,000 Wilgerbosdri Gauteng Fil-lies Guineas (Grade 2) (1st Leg Wilgerbosdri SA Triple Tiara) over 1600m1 – 4 NAFAAYES (M F De Kock) W Kennedy 60.0 – 1092 – 10 RONNIE’S CANDY (S J Gray) C Orff er 60.0 – 1053 – 8 CELTIC SEA (S G Tarry) L Hewitson 60.0 – 1004 – 7 CHITENGO (A G Laird) R Danielson 60.0 – 955 – 13 STORM DESTINY (M F De Kock) G Lerena 60.0 – 956 – 2 RUNNING BRAVE (P F Matche ) D L Habib 60.0 – 947 – 11 I LIKE IT (S Moff a ) S Brown 60.0 – 928 – 15 JUST CHAOS (S B Kotzen) B Fayd’Herbe 60.0 – 919 – 16 RAILTRIP (C D van Zyl) K Zechner 60.0 – 9110 – 6 DAGMAR (M F De Kock) R Simons 60.0 – 9011 – 17 PERFECT TIGRESS (M/A Azzie) R Munger 60.0 – 8912 – 14 VISTULA (P A Peter) M Yeni 60.0 – 8913 – 18 BLOSSOM (O A Ferraris) R Fourie 60.0 – 8814 – 1 SAINTS ALIVE (S G Tarry) …………… 60.0 – 8715 – 5 SCENT OF EVENING (M N Houdalakis) C Zackey 60.0 – 8716 – 12 CORDILLERA (S G Tarry) L J Ferraris 60.0 – 86Reserve Runners17 – 3 MAZARI (T Spies) Reserve 1 60.0 – 8518 – 9 VI VA PI PA (S G Tarry) Re-serve 2 60.0 – 82Same Trainer: (1,5,10) (3,14,16,18)
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