adminMandla Moyo Racing Correspondent
YER-Maan displayed an electrifying finishing pace on his way to winning the prestigious Castle Tankard Grade (1), open series race at Borrowdale racecourse on Saturday.
The South Africa-based runner with reigning champion jockey Quinton Riddle on board romped home in 2 minutes 00.41 seconds, 1.25 lengths ahead of the second-placed runner Lucky Sam to win the 53rd edition of the Tankard.
For their top class performance the winning connection galloped away $30,000 richer while Lucky Sam, Warcraft, Rock The Country and fifth-placed Equina received $10,000, $6,000, $3,000 and $1,000 respectively.
On a warm Saturday afternoon in a ground filled to capacity with horse racing enthusiasts and people from all walks of life, Riddle and his running mate Yer-Maan chose this grand occasion to show all and sundry what stuff they are made of.
This is how the drama unfolded. At exactly 3:45PM the stall gates gave in and opened obeying the wishes of everyone at the racecourse and all the runners in the loading bays.
The field jumped off the blocks and set off at a cracking pace towards the winning post. Lucky Sam was the quickest runner off the blocks with the defending champion Equina second in hot pursuit albeit at a controlled pace.
Every post was suddenly turned into a winning post as the battle for the leading position reached boiling point.
It was at the 1,400M mark where Warcraft went a gear up and took charge of the proceedings. His long strides gave him an advantage over the rest of the field. He was full of action and a marvel to watch for the better part of the race.
Following close behind in the rails was Lucky Sam with jockey Donavan Mansour on board. All the jockeys amongst the field fought hard to stamp their authority as the battle for the tactics raged on.
With just 150M to go and everyone else at the racecourse beginning to believe that Lucky Sam was closing in on Warcraft, Quinton Riddle on board Yer-Maan decided it was time to go.
Yer-Maan responded to that push by going on a spirited run ghosting in between Warcraft and Lucky Sam to assume control of proceedings. Once at the summit the runner never looked back to win the 2,000M long race.
Online Reporter