Mardi Gras, named after the famous New Orleans carnival, has changed hands for a rumoured R500,000 and the three-year-old has his first run for his new connections at the Vaal on Thursday.Purchased by Mayfair Speculators for R3.2m as a yearling, Mardi Gras opened his account for trainer Johan Janse van Vuuren at the Free State course three weeks ago and returns to the same venue on Thursday.Randall Simons partnered the son of Oratorio to his maiden win, but Gavin Lerena is entrusted with the ride in Thursday’s eighth race.Although he is likely to be sent off favourite, this 1,200m contest will be no walk in the park for Mardi Gras as his rivals include lightly raced Torcedor, Boatswain and Mike de Kock’s Aussie import Mohallela.Torcedor, a son of Toreador trained by Sean Tarry, won by five lengths on his second start and receives 2kg from Lerena’s mount on Thursday, with Lyle Hewitson in the saddle.Leading jockey Anthony Delpech has five rides for the De Kock stable at the meeting a...
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