Strydom postpones retirement after winning Fillies Guineas

Veteran jockey Piere Strydom has put his retirement on hold after winning Saturday’s Wilgerbosdrift Fillies Guineas at Turffontein on 25-1 chance Lady Of Power.

In the post-race interview after the grade 2 race, 56-year-old Strydom said: “I am retiring at some stage, but can’t stop now.” This indicated he was keen to partner Joe Soma’s filly again in the second leg of the Triple Tiara on March 4.

Strydom employed front-running tactics on the R175,000 daughter of Master Of My Fate and they paid off as the filly plugged on gamely to Feather Boa and Reny.

An avalanche of money arrived for the favourite, Gimme A Shot, who was sent off at the short odds of 5-4. She had to settle for fifth place, about two lengths behind the winner.

It proved a red-letter day for trainer Joe Soma for not only did he win his first Guineas, he also saddled the winner of the first two races on the card.

If Gimme A Shot’s defeat wasn’t a hard enough pill for punters to swallow, worse was to come 35 minutes later when this column’s selection, Royal Victory, was snared on the line by Eye Of The Prophet in the WSB Gauteng Guineas.

Trained by Paul Matchett and sent off at 33-1, Eye Of The Prophet and Royal Victory had a battle royal over the final 200m with Rachel Venniker just prevailing on her mount, thus putting another nail in punters’ coffins.

It’s doubtful that any tipster selected the winner of both Guineas races to finish in the first four so it was understandable the Pick Six wasn’t won and R2.7m has been carried over to a future meeting.

Bookmakers countrywide probably couldn’t believe they got an upset result in the WSB Guineas as the field contained so many fancied runners including Shoemaker, Royal Victory, East Coast, Anfields Rocket, Money Heist, Le Morne and Jimmy Don.

Eye Of The Prophet — a son of Gimmethegreenlight bred by Patricia Devine — cost R200,000 as a yearling and earned more than three times that figure with his winning effort on Saturday.

Trainer Nathan Kotzen and jockey S’manga Khumalo will be gutted that they lost out by the narrowest of margins, but are likely to be back for the second leg of the Triple Crown — the SA Classic over 1,800m.

While third-placed Electric Gold was friendless in the market and started at 25-1, there was support for 10-1 shot, Jimmy Don, who earned the fourth cheque for the Erico Verdonese stable.

Big Burn was another hot favourite to bite the dust on a forgettable day for backers with Sean Tarry’s seven-time winner having to settle for third place behind 12-1 chance Rollwiththepunches.

This was an excellent feat of training by Roy Magner as his Act Of War gelding hadn’t been seen out since winning at the Vaal at the end of July.

Bred at Summerhill Stud, the R160,000 buy Rollwiththepunches lived up to his name, holding off all challengers with Big Burn coming home third.