Koos Nkale takes leaf out of Attenborough’s book with long speech

Doubtful that racehorse owner Koos Nkale would think he’d ever be linked with Richard Attenborough. But — in terms of longevity — his post-race speech after MK’s Pride had won Saturday’s grade 1 Horse Chestnut Stakes at Turffontein was arguably longer than the famous actor and movie director gave at the 1983 Oscars.

After he won the Oscar for best picture with Gandhi, Attenborough went into lengthy detail about Gandhi’s upbringing and how his life had affected India. Reporters felt it was the longest acceptance speech at the famous awards.

Nkale is a man passionate about racing so it was understandable that he wanted to share his biggest triumph to date with racing fans. He was particularly complimentary about MK’s Pride’s trainer, Paul Peter.

Unfortunately, Nkale was addressing racing fans who were down in the mouth. The majority couldn’t believe that Kommetdieding, winner of both the Durban July and Cape Met, had not justified favouritism on his highveld debut.

The Cape raider started a heavily backed odds-on favourite but had to settle for third behind MK’s Pride and Argentina-bred Puerto Manzini.

This was the ninth win for MK’s Pride, which took his earnings above R2m. The four-year-old is a son of Willow Magic and was bred at Summerhill Stud.

Some pundits had warned that Kommetdieding, who was reported to have over-raced in the early stages, might find the 1,600m too sharp and the colt will certainly be better suited to the 2,000m of the Champions Challenge at the end of the month.

This column’s fancy, Al Muthana, never mounted a serious challenge and finished sixth, five lengths behind the winner. The no show contributed to a dismal meeting for popular jockey S’manga Khumalo.

MK’s Pride’s win and Master Archie’s victory in the grade 3 Man O’ War Stakes boosted Peter’s chance of winning his first trainers championship. He went ahead of Justin Snaith for the first time this term a week ago.

While Mike de Kock will be disappointed with the performances of Al Muthana and Clafoutis who finished last in the SA Oaks, he was able to chalk up his sixth SA Derby win courtesy of an excellent ride by Richard Fourie on this column’s selection, Aragosta.

In contrast to Khumalo, Fourie proved he is the hottest jockey property around with three winners — Aragosta (Derby), Rain In Holland (Oaks) and Nebraas (Caradoc Gold Cup).

Zeus, well-backed for last month’s SA Classic, relished the step up to 2,450m in the Derby recovering from a slow start to make Fourie pull out all the stops on the drive to the line. Peter’s runner, London Roads, finished third but bled during the race and has been suspended for 60 days.

It’s been an outstanding season for Gaynor Rupert’s Drakenstein Stud and her racing manager, Kevin Sommerville, was at the city track to receive the trophy for Rain In Holland’s win in the SA Oaks.

At a meeting with rough results, this result was welcomed by punters and no doubt by Rupert who will have enjoyed winning the R1m Triple Tiara bonus put up by Mary Slack’s Wilgerbosdrift Stud.

Fourie is unbeaten on the three occasions he has partnered Rain In Holland and the daughter of Duke Of Marmalade will be a notable addition to Drakenstein’s band of mares when she retires to the paddocks.

In the meantime, it is going to be interesting to see the route Rupert and Sean Tarry choose for the remainder of the campaign. The three-year-old is a 20-1 chance in early Durban July betting with Lance Michael but as short as 14-1 with World Sports Betting.