DR Andreas Jacobs has an extremely busy life and holds several highly responsible positions in trade and industry all over the world. He’ll freely admit, however, that having a winner gives him and wife Natalie as much pleasure as his best business deals – the latest a promising win by Mike de Kock-trained La Cenerentola (headline photo) in a Fillies and Mares Handicap over 1400m at Scottsville on Sunday.

The Jacobs family own Maine Chance farms – just a small part of their worldwide empire that includes sought after chocolates and the superior-quality coffee some of our readers will be sipping on while reading this.  (Read Sporting’s Post Profile of Dr Andreas Jacobs here).

Andreas has put countless hours of his expertise into building an developing Maine Chance and keeping it among South Africa’s best breeding establishments – including the introduction of Champion Sire Silvano to our shores and, as Mike de Kock comments, “investments like these into the South African racing industry deserve every ounce of success that returns!”

“La Cenerentola” is the operatic version of the Cinderella story, and Jacobs will be hoping that his three-year-old filly by Western Winter will develop into a true belle of the ball.

La Cenerentola is still green – she runs with her head high and with her legs “all over the place”, in the words of jockey Warren Kennedy, but she looks smart enough to win her fair share of races and with her good pedigree you never know how far she will progress!

La Cenerentola is unbeaten after winning her 1200m debut and negotiating the Scottsville bend without any trouble on course to Sunday’s 1400m success. She has a nice action, moved up smoothly from a few lengths off the call and quickened away well to win by 2.25-lengths.

“She won with a bit of authority. The field wasn’t all that strong but she has some growing to do and once she puts it together she’ll be a nice filly,” commented Kennedy.