What made his win even more astounding was the fact that the horse trailed the rest of the field due to an unfavourable draw but beat overwhelming favourite Captain’s Tiger in a last gasp recovery.
Rock The Country, at 5/1 at the closing of bets, offered a heavy $8,60 for a win to punters, the highest offer at Borrowdale race course this season.
The $9,000 race attracted only eight of the nominated horses for the event and two of the top four placed horses, including fourth-placed Forty One, were Zimbabwean bred horses. Captain’s Tiger, the seven-year-old son of Century Stand and Beautiful Life, was also bred in Zimbabwe.
Queen Rania, Mighty Shaa, Pleasant Valley and Copper Bay followed in that order to complete the line-up, while the heavily-favoured Madigan, Macchiato, and Choisir, were scratched at the last minute. In the Pinnacle Plate 105, Approval Rating was the star of the show, as Lance Pagel rode the four-year old gelden to the title ahead of Two Buck Chuck, Penthouse and Arula Borealis.
That gave Ghokan Terzi two big titles, after he also took the Breeders Champions Cup with Rock The Country. The next race is the second leg of the Triple Crown, to be held on March 23, while the Zimbabwe Derby, which is the third leg of the Triple Crown, is set for April 20 and the Grade One Castle Tankard pencilled-in for May 10.
South African horse, A King Is Born, is the Castle Tankard defending champion, having won the title ahead of Ginepri last year. Ginepri went on to win the OK Grand Challenge, ironically ahead of A King Is Born.
Post published in: Sport