Peter cuts Snaith lead to R1m in trainers title race

The parallels between the race for the Premier League in the UK and that for the title of champion trainer in SA are astonishing. The same question is being asked in both contests: can second-placed Liverpool overhaul Manchester City and can Paul Peter overhaul Justin Snaith?

Manchester City lead Liverpool by six points but have played one game more. Pundits are already giving their opinions as to who will win the encounter between the two in April.

Peter will be well aware his horses have to shine during the highveld spring season and they did just that at Turffontein last Saturday with three winners including a feature race double courtesy of Pin Up and Shangani.

These successes added to Sprinkles’ excellent second in the SA Fillies Classic and Freed From Desire’s same placing in the Hawaii Stakes, which reduced Snaith lead to exactly R1m. Snaith’s tally this term is R12,478,688 and Peter’s total is R11,478,688.

What has become clear to racing fans is that Peter is passionate about his profession. He said so in an interview a decade ago when he stated: “the passion has always come from within for as long as I can remember”.

Peter probably doesn’t care one way or another who wins the English premiership. Outside racing he is keen on running and cycling and has run the Comrades and Two Oceans Marathons.

Peter sent 13 runners to the city track last weekend — three more than Mike de Kock. Now while that’s a decent number, it is way below Justin Snaith’s representation at the Met meeting where he saddled 35 winners.

The next two months offer the Snaith yard a few chances of landing decent prize money, but the ruling champion will be assembling a top team for the KwaZulu-Natal Champions season for which increased purses have been announced.

Peter never ducks a challenge so we can expect to see SA Fillies Classic runner-up Sprinkles contest the third leg of the Triple Tiara. The filly’s sire is Elusive Fort, who just happens to be the sire of the country’s top horse, Kommetdieding.

Gavin Lerena confirmed to this writer on Saturday that the Met winner had settled in “perfectly” to his new surroundings at Roy Magner’s stable at Randjesfontein.

Sprinkles, bred at Narrow Creek Stud and a bargain buy as a yearling at just R50,000, should stay the Oaks trip of 2,450m as the three-year-old is out of a Tiger Ridge mare.

Shangani posted the fifth win of his career in the 2,400m Aquanaut Handicap and it is possible the gelding could take on Kommetdieding in the grade 1 Champions Challenge. The son of Soft Falling Rain finished nearly four lengths in front of his nearest rival.

The five-year-old mare Pin Up took her earnings to more than R400,000 with victory in the grade 3 Acacia Stakes. She wasn’t the choice of many pundits as she was taking on some useful females including Sentbydestiny, Admire Me and Rosaprima.

However, Warren Kennedy — as vital to Peter as Mo Salah is to Liverpool — was up to the challenge once again to land a decent prize for the Hyperpaint Syndicate.

Mention must be made of the sterling job trainer Steve Moffatt has done with the eight-year-old mare Rouge Allure. She finished second behind Pin Up to add another R40,000 to her career earnings of more than R1m.

“Now she’s got some black type, I expect she will be off to make babies later this year,” Moffatt told this writer on Saturday.

At the end of the meeting, Peter will feel he had a good day at the office. It won’t matter to him one iota that bookmaker Lance Michael gives him a 6-1 chance to win his first trainers title.