Argentinian import scores in Summer Cup

They were crying in Argentina last week when the country got beaten by Saudi Arabia in the World Cup, but Saturday was a different story with their football team beating Mexico and a horse bred there winning the Betway Summer Cup at Turffontein.

4Racing went the extra mile to ensure what is termed “the people’s race” was a success and they were rewarded with a tremendous finish to the grade 1 race though perhaps not what pundits or punters had expected.

The majority of racing fans were in the corner of Hollywoodbets Durban July winner, Sparkling Water, but — on a day jockey S’manga Khumalo will want to forget in a hurry — the mare failed to fire and finished nearly six lengths behind the 11-2 winner, Puerto Manzano.

Sparkling Water — sent off the 3-1 favourite — was examined by the vet after the race and found to be not striding out right front.

Jockey Keagan De Melo has been pretty much walking on water in the first four months of the season and he had to be at his best to hold off Muzi Yeni on Safe Passage in the run to the line.

While the two horses bumped in the closing stages, this didn’t affect the result with trainer Johan Janse Van Vuuren’s five-year-old scoring by half a length.

“This was a win full of merit from the horse and he was very gutsy,” said De Melo.

Chatting to Yeni after racing, the popular jockey said his mount had every chance but felt the fact it was his second run after a break might have been a factor in his defeat. The four-year-old’s only start this term had been a third-place finish in the Charity Mile.

Aragosta finished a creditable third, but it was the performance of fourth-placed, Divine Odyssey, a stablemate of the winner, which left most punters speechless.

Now eight years old, Divine Odyssey failed to win in Gqeberha in September and had run unplaced on his two starts back on the highveld. Little wonder that he was a 125-1 chance in the betting.

Puerto Manzano’s owner, Laurence Wernars, could never have expected that he and his partners would pocket the R250,000 third cheque with their ageing runner.

Sean Tarry, who had won four of the last five runnings of the Cup, had a luckless race with fifth-placed Litigation finishing best of his quintet of runners.

Piere Strydom’s mount Nebraas — backed in to 8-1 — was never seen with a chance and was found to have spread a shoe in the race. Calvin Habib was all at sea on badly drawn Pyromaniac, and never got into the race.

Nine-time winner MK’s Pride, was another no-show in the 2,000m race and he picked up a 60-day suspension after bleeding during the race.

Though Mike de Kock will be disappointed not to have taken top honours in the Summer Cup, he had the distinction of filling the first three places in the Jonsson Workwear Dingaans.

Business Day’s top choice for the grade 2 race was Union Square and the son of Rafeef produced the goods to win at the attractive odds of 11-2.

Stablemate Shoemaker, the mount of Richard Fourie, was one of the best-backed horses at the meeting, but Randall Simons made full use of his favourable draw to take the R250,000 first prize. Quite possibly, this well-bred three-year-old could be a Durban July contender.

Another winner for the newspaper on Joburg’s biggest racing day of the year was the filly Gimme A Shot, who won the grade 2 Ipi Tombe Stakes at odds of 7-2.