Rising Sun Easter Handicap Clairwood

8 APRIL 2009



The Glen Kotzen trained Pirate’s Gold heads a smart field of eleven runners that have accepted to run in the R125 000 Rising Sun Easter Handicap, a listed event to be contested over 2000m at Clairwood Racecourse on Sunday, 12 April 2009.



The Rising Sun Gold Circle Racing Carnival always attracts a large long weekend holiday crowd and with live entertainment in between races, flea market and food stalls, fashion, a car show and to end the day a bhangra bash, it will prove to be an excellent day out.



Those attending can expect to be entertained by high quality early season horseracing as many of the feature race runners will have pretensions to greater glory in the forthcoming Champions Season. Heading the list of talented thoroughbreds is the handsome chestnut son of the now defunct American bred stallion Rich Man’s Gold, Pirate’s Gold, who bids to win his sixth race on the trot after a fantastic form revival that has seen him win all of his five starts since Christmas Eve of last year. His last win was his most impressive when he accounted for a strong field in the Grade 3 King’s Cup. His regular pilot Sean Cormack rates him very highly and Sunday’s race represents his next stepping stone in his quest for a tilt at the Vodacom Durban July.



Tony Rivalland sends out the six year old son of London News, London Guest, who has not won since a brilliant victory in the Grade 3 SABC Sport 2200 on Vodacom Durban July day last year. Billed as the consolation July, this performance showed that he has both the class and ability to trouble the best on his day and with the services of Raymond Danielson he represents a big threat for top honours on Sunday. Another Summerveld trainer, Kumaran Naidoo, has the only three-year-old in the field in the attractive gelding Ultra Vires, a course and distance winner and a fellow who could be realistically considered Derby material at this point in his career. He only needs to maintain his improvement to be considered a realistic contender.



Champion trainer Mike de Kock sends out a multiple Graded race winning coupling, headed by the popular grey Equal Image. Now rising eight years of age, his best years are probably behind him but he has loads of class and tends to find his form in KwaZulu-Natal at this time of the year. He won the 2200 the year before London Guest and returns to the scene of his greatest triumph – racegoers will recall his brilliant Grade 1 Champions Cup win in July 2006. Anthony Delpech rides stable companion Winter Weather, a winner of the Grade 2 Gold Circle Derby last season. He has not recaptured that form but riding arrangements indicate that he should not be ignored by punters.



Herman Brown Jnr has the only filly in the race in the daughter of Fantastic Light, Leading Light. Running in the famous Linington silks, she shook Clairwood to the core at her last outing when getting to within a 0,25 length of the rising star Lord London. No horse has been this close to Alastair Gordon’s son of Hussonet, so it will be interesting to see how she performs over the extra distance on Sunday and she will certainly have her supporters.



Visiting Cape trainer Vaughan Marshall struck an early blow for the visitors last week when the impressive son of Var, Villandry, stepped out and blew the opposition away in his first start here, and he sends out Ela-Re for well known owner George Nichas. This son of Woodborough is to be partnered by talented apprentice Donovan Mansour and he could be a value horse at long-odds.



All said and done, a tough but interesting poser for punters and plenty of entertainment for the whole family.



ends



Gill Simpkins

The Rising Sun Gold Circle Racing Carnival at Clairwood Racecourse on Sunday proved a resounding success on all fronts with a crowd of close to 9000 enjoying the beautiful sunshine, spectacular horseracing and entertainment.



The crowd was up over 10% on last year’s figure and all present thoroughly enjoyed taking part in and watching the dance and fashion competitions, the singers, comedians, flea market and food stalls, Bhangra Bash and of course, the spectacular horseracing.



The Clairwood track was in superb condition and the scene was set for a fantastic feature race contest. The large crowd were not disappointed with a thrilling dead-heat being declared to the R125,000 Rising Sun Easter Handicap over 2 000m as the judge could not separate the three year old Ultra Vires and the older warrior, Tailormade.



Ultra Vires was the only three-year-old in the race and gave rising Summerveld trainer Kumaran Naidoo his first stakes winner. He also gave sire Modus Vivendi his first stakes winner. He has, what winning jockey Kelvin Jupp described as a, “funny mouth” so carried his head a bit awkwardly in the running, but was actually nicely relaxed and then ran on very well in the straight. Naidoo said that the obvious race to aim Ultra Vires at now would be the Grade 1 Daily News 2000 at Greyville on June 6.



Tailormade, an eight-year-old Model Man gelding, is trained by James Goodman and was ridden by Marco Latorre. He surprised many punters with his outstanding finishing burst off a slow pace as he is an acknowledged staying type.



CEO of The Rising Sun Newspaper Group, Vijay Maharaj, said that he was thrilled with the success of the day and at the manner in which it had grown in stature over the past few years: “We are up on attendance and the carnival continues to grow in popularity with a wonderful day of family entertainment offered in a safe and secure environment. It is a tribute to the excellent working partnership between Clive Chetty and Gold Circle that it went off so smoothly and was incident-free. We are striving to take the carnival to even greater heights next year,” he said.



Gold Circle Racing Director Graeme Hawkins echoed Maharaj’s comments and said that the partnership was a valued one and that working with the professional Rising Sun team was a pleasure: “The carnival has become an institution at Clairwood and we are particularly pleased at the manner in which it is supported as a family outing. The growth year on year has been visible and we hope to see it grow further in the years ahead. Everybody involved in the organization and promotion of the day deserves a pat on the back,“ he said .





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