Red-Letter Day For Gareth van Zyl
Summerveld trainer Gareth van Zyl has established himself as one of South Africa’s leading young stars, celebrating a special Sunday at Hollywoodbets Greyville with four winners including an exacta in the daily feature, the R135,000 New Turf Carriers eThekwini Sprint.
With a quartet of runners headlining the 1200m multi-course, the Van Zyl shipyard always seemed to have had a strong hand, delivering to the team in the form of Shipholia, one of only two gallopers of the fair sex in the 11-horse field his 66th place finish, giving winners (more than 5 million Rand in stakes) their best season yet
The Jets fired from the gates as Music Is Life and Magic Tattoo turned the attack and listed stakes winner Countdown looked dangerous in the final 300 yards.
But in a three-corner drive to the finish, Shipholia, who gave the high-profile Hollywood Syndicate their third winner of the afternoon, came out on top after winning the heat of the race from pole position.
Cole Dicken pilots Shipholia to the finish line ahead of Music Is Life (Sipho Hlengwe) while Muzi Yeni is third again on Countdown (Image – Candies Lenferna)
In a thrilling finish, Winning Form sponsored rider Cole Dicken propelled three-year-old Shipholia (25-2) to the finish to break away from stablemate Music Is Life (20-1) by .15 lengths in a time of 67 a determined challenger to withdraw a lead .81 sec
Watch the race replay here:
Countdown (33-10) ran a smash to finish just under half a length down in third place.
Favorite USA’s Hope always seemed overwhelmed but stayed in touch and dropped a length to fourth place.
Hollywood Syndicate Racing Manager Anthony Delpech gives a thumbs up as Craig and Sheldon Peters look on (Image – Candies Lenferna)
The winner, named by KZN commentator Sheldon Peters after his two daughters Shiloh and Sophia, was bred by Klawervlei Stud and is a daughter of Captain Al’s Cape Guineas winner son William Longsword out of US-bred Holy Bull mare Sea Glitter. The latter only ran once.
Something of an all-weather specialist, Shipholia has won three races on Hollywoodbets Greyville’s polytrack surface, with three places from nine starts and a stake of R244,375. It cost R300,000 at the Cape Premier Yearling Sale 2021.
Watch the post-race feature interview here:
Van Zyl’s other winners: Hollywoodbound, Iron Bark and Matyam. Sporting Post sponsored jockey Ahandiwe Mgudlwa rode three of the five winners.
The KZN race resumes on Monday 17th July 2023 at Hollywoodbets Greyville.