adminAugustine Hwata Senior Sports Reporter
THE five-year-old chestnut gelding Alula Borealis from the Lisa Harris yard defied the odds of carrying the top weight in the field to win the Zimbabwe Challenge 1 400m at Borrowable on Sunday. The Zimbabwe Challenge came as Race Six on the day where seven events were carded and was the last feature race of the year.
Racing at Borrowable will take a break and is expected to resume on January 5, 2014.
With jockey Quinton Riddle holding the straps, the horse with a draw of 11 in the feature race, stopped the clocks in 1 min 22.93 seconds, to finish a single lens ahead of Madigan from the rival Kirk Swanson stable.
Alula Borealis carried 60kgs, which was the top weight from the field of nine runners, but still managed to get the US$4 860 first purse, while the highly-rated Madigan settled for second place.
Sherman Brown took a ride on the four-year old-gelding Madigan as the combination finished two-and-a half lens ahead of Candymancan.
Leading trainer Harris sent in Candymancan with rider Francois Naude while young trainer Gorkhan Terzi’s best runner was Super Trouper who finished two full lens behind Candymancan.
Richie Rich, who showed so much potential, seems to have lost form of late as he finished last in ninth place while Penthouse and Pleasant Valley were scratched at the last minute as the starter had trouble in loading Choisir into the starting stalls.
Penthouse, who was number four on the race card, hit the gates and kicked behind the starting stalls, injuring jockey Keagan Latham in the process.
Following his injury, Latham could not take a ride on Flamingo Lily in the Merit Rated Handicap 1 200m that was the last event of the year.
Terzi saddled in three winners while Harris had two victories with Swanson and Sed d’ Aquino notching a victory each.
Online Reporter