SHARP SNAITH AGAIN

Owner Kessie Naidoo must think racing horses is an easy game. His first ever visit to the wishing well is the Keivan Stud-bred Machete Man, a son of Act Of War who went all the way to win the weather delayed R350 000 WSB Listed East Cape Derby at Fairview on Friday.

The son of Dynasty stallion Act Of War was registering his third straight win here and looks to be an improver after shedding his maiden in low-key fashion in the miserable Cape winter as a newly-turned 3yo.

While he has enjoyed plenty of success in the race, it was Justin Snaith’s first win in the East Cape Derby since champion Malmoos’ smart brother Captain Splendid won under Lyle Hewitson in 2016.

And after the curved ball of a switch from the turf to the polytrack after plenty of rain in the region, a minor upset was always on the cards. Enjoying his best season ever, and just six days after guiding Times Flies to victory in the KRA Listed East Coast Cup at Hollywoodbets Greyville, Louis Mxothwa registered his 101st winner of the term as he rode a peach of a race from the front.

Machete Man (6-1) stayed on doggedly and kept finding all the way to the line to beat 4Racing on-course tipster Neil Pretorius’ value bet Quasimodo (16-1) by a quarter length in a time of 135,36 secs.

Heathcliff (11-2) was right in the mix and stayed on in third.

Stablemate to the winner and race favourite, Cosmic Event (9-4) was never in it but was not disgraced, finishing out of the payout queue and 3,75 lengths back.

Bred by Keivan Stud, the winner is out of the two-time winning Var mare Amazing Var. Now a winner of 4 races with 4 places from 14 starts, Machete Man took his stakes bank to R415 500. That’s a decent return on the R200 000 that he cost at the National 2yo Sale.