APPRENTICE Franklin Maleking returns to the winner’s enclosure at a wintery Vaal aboard Sheikh Hamdan’s gelding In Eight Days (8-1), the winner of a MR72 Handicap over 1400m on turf at the Vaal on Tuesday.

Maleking picked up a suspension for causing some interference, but he’d be happy having put his name on the board for the stable and assistant trainer Mathew de Kock commented: “In Eighty Days hangs and they caused  some interference, but we kept the race and Franklin’s 4kg allowance helped.”

He added: “I don’t think In Eighty Days will stop here. He has a strong finishing run, in both his wins he was unsighted halfway through but finished powerfully to win, showing that he’d stay the mile and probably further too. He’s won two after a throat operation.”

In Eighty Days, bred by Klawervlei, is by Trippi from a Jet Master mare – that alone will give his connections confidence going foward. He was a R500,000 purchase at the Cape Premier Yearling Sale. 

Tuscan (yellow silks), gets the upperhand to win his Maiden.

Mathew thinks that Tuscan, who won Race 1 over 1400m under work rider Francis Semela, will also win again. He said: “It took Tuscan nine runs to crack his Maiden and it happened in a weak Vaal winter field, but he has the ability to win another one or two.”