Revered trainer Wendy Whitehead saddles three runners in Race 6 at the Greyville Polytrack meeting on Wednesday. Picture: iStock
The unpredictable nature of juvenile horse racing was underlined at Greyville on Vodacom Durban July day on Saturday 25 July.
After the Golden Slipper had been landed by filly Love Bomb at odds of 35-1, the colts’ heat, the Golden Horseshoe, went the way of 10-1 chance Nourbese.
Vodacom Durban July live stream: Catch all the action here
The problem with betting on two-year-olds is that they can improve dramatically, in a matter of weeks, as they mature – making comparative race form unreliable.
Nourbese, trained by Corne Spies and ridden by Stuart Randolph, had made a promising start to his career, winning his fourth outing. However, he was drawn a little wide at 10 in this sharp 1,400m Grade 2 event. Also, he was bumping some of the most precocious young runners from around the country.
Erik The Red, from the Cape Town stables of Justin Snaith, started as the 5-2 favourite, with 28-10 shot Ashford Castle and 4-1 chance Ecstatic Green deemed his main rivals.
Spies’s other runner, Karnallie, set the pace from the 1400m start, with Ziva La Winter and The Contractor on his heels. Veale had Nourbese in touch and when Erik The Red and Portico (another outsider at 20-1) drew ahead and looked like fighting it out, he was poised to strike.
And strike he did, winning by half a length from Portico, with the favourite fading to third.
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