adminMandla Moyo Horse Racing Corresspondent
MERHABA broke the hearts of many on his way to winning the Bloodstock South Africa 2000 Grade (3) race, the second leg of the Triple Crown on Sunday at Borrowdale Racecourse.
This Gelding from the stable of Gokhan Terzi with apprentice jockey Wesley Marwing on the irons arrived home in a time of 2 minutes 03.89 seconds beating the second placed runner, Mica Point by 1.25 lengths.
For winning the Bloodstock race, the best connection collected a $4,869 cheque while the three placed runners to go past the finishing post, Mica Point, Tallie Two and Eversolucky collected $1,620, $1,012 and $608 according to their order of merit.
At exactly 3:50PM the white flag went up, the gates were pushed open setting free a field of 9 runners who quickly jumped off the blocks making an even break and set off at a cracking pace post wards.
Eversolucky was quick to pick up the pieces and eased into the lead with the rest of the field in hot pursuit.
Every post was suddenly turned into a winning post and every stride the field made brought a new twist to this race.
However, a fierce battle between Eversolucky and Mica Point took centre stage as the runners went past the 400M towards the finishing line.
Unfortunately after cruising past the 200m mark Eversolucky ran out of steam falling further behind the leaders.
At this stage Merhaba and Tallie Two began to make an issue out of it, they suddenly appeared in the picture to challenge Mica Point who seemed to be rolling away with the honours.
Interestingly a few strides down the turf Mica Point and Merhaba broke away from Tallie Two.
This was to mark the beginning of a fierce but mouth watering dual pitting these two against each other.
Suddenly this began to usher in a new wave of excitement towards this much anticipated race.
It was at the 100M mark where jockey Wesley Marwing pushed his running mate
Merhaba a gear up, in the process peeling away from Mica Point and they never looked back to go past the finishing post in the process winning the Bloodstock race.
Before the race Merhaba, an outsider, was placed (9/2) odds on favourite to win the race while Mica Point was (11/2) odds on favourites to take it away. Tallie Two has the biggest chance on paper to gallop to victory after getting an opening bet of (5/1).
For the punters the biggest winners were those who had gone for the Quartet, Trifecta and the Exactar as they made a killing after collecting $432.90,$273.60 and 57.90 respectively.
Mica Point the winner of the first leg arrived home in second position.
This defeat automatically put a dent on her quest to win all the legs of the Triple Crown and engrave her name in the history books as one of the best thoroughbred runners to win this three legged competition. Focus now shifts to the final leg of the Triple Crown which is the Zimbabwe Derby Grade (3) race slated for April 19 at the race course.
Online Reporter