MONDAY 9th - THURSDAY 12th MAY 2016
No. 2250
FLAMINGO PARK 12:20pm (Monday)
KENILWORTH 1:00pm (Tuesday)
SCOTTSVILLE
12:30pm (Wednesday)
VAAL
The decent Argonaut mare Clear Sailing can go in again
12:55pm (Thursday)
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MR 90 HANDICAP at Scottsville on Wednesday
The reappearance at Scottsville on Wednesday from ‘retirement’ of the recent Listed KwaZulu Natal Stakes winner Clear Sailing may raise some eyebrows. The daughter of Argonaut won her anticipated ‘final’ race in smart style when thought to be five months in foal. lear Sailing takes on seven rivals in a competitive MR 90 Handicap over 1000m on a track where she loves to run down the inside rail – and enjoys a bit of give in the ground. Drawn widest in the small field, her top rider won’t have a problem dropping her in onto the rail. But she won’t have it easy with Glen Kotzen fielding a very decent coupling, headed
by course and distance winner Royal Pleasure, a dual stakes victress at this track.
Unfortunate
Anthony Delpech rides Clear Sailing again, and
owner Cecil Baitz explains that his mare was subsequently found to have absorbed her foal. After having bled following her second win for her new stable, Clear Sailing had been covered by Ato at Summerhill and was five months pregnant when she registered that valuable blacktype win. “You know, we made such a song and dance of it. And then just before I called the float to take her to the stud, I
decided to get her rechecked. I had two Vets, including the original guy, confirm that there was no foal. So we were disappointed and I asked Deez Dayanand to announce it on course, just to clarify things,” said the longstanding KZN based owner, who races Clear Sailing with his Aussie based Veterinarian son, Gary. The Baitz’ purchased Clear Sailing out of the Dennis Drier yard after her original owners, Robyn and Robin Muir, had decided to put her
on the market as a three-time winner.
Issues
The Muir’s motivation was that her sire Argonaut was not firing and Clear Sailing had also later developed a breathing issue. That was on top of the fact that she had cracked a pelvis as a weanling. It was Dr Gary Baitz who advised her new trainer Mike Miller to try the use of a spoon bit, which is used in Australia to keep the tongue down. Cont. p.2
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