From The Horse's Mouth - Mark Van Deventer

The Clinton Binda stable landed a neat double at Turffontein on Saturday with two sprinters, Ziyasha and Umzingeli Wenyathi. Both received strong support in the market with Ziyasha shortening from 9/2 into 2/1 and Umzingeli Wenyathi halving in from 3’s to 14/10.

Ziyasha can go some when all parts are in working order and his performance merited a strong speed score of 105 under returning-from-injury rider, Gavin Lerena. Behind him were Destiny of Fire and Almond Sea who both attained 101’s. The consistent Slinky Mapimpi, who often runs in the high 90’s, cranked out another 98.

Rachel Venniker got Umzingeli Wenyathi home in the last in a tight finish to land the betting plunge. She had to ward off Twentytwentyvision s/s 96 and Lonely as a Cloud s/s 96 with Slender Silhouette s/s 91 rounding out quartets.

The ground was very soft in the Cape after recent heavy rains which have caused considerable damage, including to some historic Stud farms in the Bar Valley. The Kenilworth track variant was correspondingly slow. 

After crunching the numbers Bourbon King s/s 89 and Reef Runner s/s 86+ got the best ratings.

Bourbon King (trained by Andre Nel) won a true run contest over 1800m and should develop into a nice middle-distance campaigner as he matures and settles down temperamentally. 

Reef Runner is a different type completely, Justin Snaith’s precocious 2-year-old charge is bred for speed being by Rafeef and is already totally focussed.

SA’s Log-leading jockey, Craig Zackey was on a roll winning four races on the card. He has always been stylish and able to settle horses well. Now he is developing his tactical nous and becoming a more complete race-rider. He is currently striking at a 17% win and 57% place rate to mounts.

Bourbon King was settled midfield before coming through to win convincingly: Trip to Camelot was anchored at the back before finishing powerfully in the slop and getting up on the line; Zackey controlled the pace start to finish on Raffish Trend whilst Black Erika prevailed in a head-bobber after racing handy. Tremendous work!

Ricky Maingaard saddled Pritti United s/s 91 (that’s a pretty good number for a Maiden class) and Hunga Tonga s/s 87 in a stable double at Scottsville on Sunday. He is an astute, experienced conditioner who knows the individual characteristics of his charges exceptionally well. After stints in Mauritius and Cape Town, he is temporarily back in Natal, where he trained years ago.

Other notable figures were recorded by Fiery Rose s/s 96, talented 2-year-old Vibe Check s/s 91+ and Capsaicin s/s 92.

Zeitz really turned on the turbo boosters to win a false-run A Stakes Stakes, zooming through the final 400m in 21.7 seconds. The early pace was glacier-slow which tends to suit handy types who quicken up. Just sometimes though, horses that accelerate really smartly can give start and still slice through the field.

Zeitz did just that – the grey made his foes look like trees as he flashed past to win by a length from Imposing. Favourite, former HOTY, Dave the King folded tamely after leading into the straight. And, second favourite Aristocratic, failed to make any headway, clocking in unplaced.