SANTA'S GIFT TO NOAH

A super festive vibe where charity once again prevailed at a horseracing
event was evident at today's Grand Parade's Raceday. Burger King's play
kingdom with Santa Clause's presence and some of SA's top idols made for a
full day's entertainment for families who came racing.


Mike de Kock and his chief stable jockey Anthony Delpech had another
successful Gr 1 raid of Cape Town today when winning the Grand Parade Cape
Guineas with the Wilgerbosdrift Stud-bred Tiger Ridge gelding Noah From
Goa, who followed up on his recent Gr 2 Investec Dingaans win and remains
unbeaten on turf, although he was defeated in one of his two sand runs.


The big talk was whether the Mike Bass-trained filly Silver Mountain could
become only the second horse in history to do the Cape Fillies Guineas-Cape
Guineas double and she started odds-on favourite.


However, she had a few traffic problems in the straight when looking full
of running. After being switched a long way inward she didn't have enough
left to catch Noah From Goa who turned for home right near the front and
ran on strongly to convert odds of 5/1.


The Johan Janse Van Vuuren-trained Brazuca made it a Highveld raider
one-two when flying up and just touching off the equally strong-finishing
Brett Crawford-trained Nassa for second. It was Brazuca's second career Gr
1 runner up finish and he was only three-quarters of a length behind the
winner.


Silver Mountain finished only 0,9 lengths behind the winner in fourth but
lost little in defeat as her class was evident and with a little more luck
she could have got closer.


Mary Slack's Wilgerbosdrift Stud also part-owns Noah From Goa together with
De Kock himself, Gary Grant, Chris Haynes, Gary Westwater, Mrs NP Malherbe
and Dr. John and Mrs AJ McVeigh.


The other two feature races on the card were both won by the Justin Snaith
yard, Heartland just getting up in the Listed Cape Premier Sales Jet Master
Stakes over 1600m under Bernard Fayd'Herbe and Current Event powering
through late to comfortably win the Gr 3 Grandwest Cape Summer Stayers over
2500m under S'Manga Khumalo.

so close for Silver Mountain - congratulations and well done to Noah From Goa and team.