YOUNG French owner Jean-Mari Collier and partners chalked up their first winner in South Africa when Tiger Ridge filly Amur Affair (Tshwaro Appie up) won a Maiden Juvenile Plate over 1200m at the Vaal last Thursday. Mike de Kock, Chris Haynes and Gary Grant are the other partners in this speedy two-year-old, produced at Wilgerbosdrift Stud from their mare, Weston Fair.

“We’re proud to have trained this winner for Jean-Mari and his friends,” said Mike. “He’s long been a good friend of the stable by way of his association with Jessica Slack and we hope this filly goes from strength to strength. We have a special interest in Amur Affair because we bred her ourselves. We fancied her to win first time out, but inexperience got to her, that run made all the difference though. The interest in South African racing remains high, the eyes of French are also on us!”

Silver and Gold wins, needs gelding.

Lack of experience was Silver and Gold’s downfall too when he was beaten, odds-on-favourite, on his Vaal debut in February. But the Silvano-colt made amends when plugging away for a narrow win under Anthony Delpech, half an hour after Amur Affair stood in the winner’s box.

“He’s a progressive sort and he’s crying to be gelded,” said Mike about Silver and Gold, who races for Sheikh Hamdan of Dubai. “We expected him to win first time out and he also improved with a single run under the belt.”