The Hill Doesn’t Care How Old You Are
Turffontein’s Standside circuit has a reputation for a reason: from the 1,600m marker the track climbs a full twelve metres all the way to the home turn, a genuine examination of stamina that catches out anything that hasn’t trained on. On a firm, fast Highveld track this afternoon, that rise asked its questions in two very different races – and got two very different kinds of answers.
Up The Rise In The Pinnacle Stakes
The day’s feature, the Pinnacle Stakes over 2400m, is exactly the sort of test that circuit was built for, and it went to Hotarubi, who had enough left for the climb to hold off a strong run from Bellerophon. The three-year-old Bellerophon, ridden by Mickaelle Michel for trainer Fabian Habib, arrived on the back of an easy win at the Vaal over the same 2400m last month – but this was a different proposition, back at Turffontein and back up that hill, against a sharper Class A field. Earlier in the year Bellerophon had already had a look at Turffontein’s tougher tests, including an even longer trip in the autumn against hotter company. Today’s runner-up effort in the Pinnacle Stakes, with that hill to climb in the closing stages, was the kind of run that builds a case for the bigger middle-distance races still to come this season.
New Names On The Turffontein Honour Roll
While the older horses fought it out up the rise, the bottom of the card told the other Turffontein story – the one about first chances. Social Graces, sent out by trainer Jaj van Vuuren under Keagan de Melo, made her first-ever racecourse appearance count in the day’s opening Maiden Juvenile Plate for fillies, while later on the card Apparition – also partnered by de Melo, for the de Kock stable – did the same in the Maiden Plate for fillies and mares. Two horses, no career starts between them before today, both walked away with their names in the record book for good.
Master Smoker took the slightly longer road to the winner’s circle. A clear-cut second on debut at the Vaal last month over 1400m was a promising starting point, and stepping back up to that same 1400m at Turffontein today, with Craig Zackey back in the saddle, was enough to get the job done – the kind of quiet improvement from start one to start two that trainers love to see.
A Track With Layers
It’s part of what makes Turffontein special: a track laid out on a working gold farm well over a century ago, still asking the same honest questions of horses today as it did when the grandstand foundations first went in. One card, one firm track, and two-year-olds taking their first steps on the same afternoon that a Class A field fought up the famous hill for the Pinnacle Stakes – that’s a Turffontein Sunday in full.
If you’re following today’s Turffontein card, the full racecard and form guide is at cfox.co.za/predictions.
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