THE Sydney Sunday Telegraph carried a short piece on the good Maiden victory by Mike de Kock trained Heavenly Blue last week, reporting:

(At The Track recalls that) John Messara hosted a function (at the Inglis complex in Sydney) between day one and two of The Championships.

After a few tipples in the Messaras’ Arrowfield marquee, a trio of well known, rowdy but very popular raconteur South Africans kicked on and joined the Inglis crew and Inglis sponsor Johnnie Walker for a whisky tasting in Arthur & Charlotte Inglis’s Newmarket Room.

Heavenly Blue wins his Maiden at the Vaal.

As a very famous Scottish vet warmed his vocal cords on the exquisite Blue blend, quick-thinking Andy Williams of Arrowfield Stud cornered the trio and negotiated for them to buy a stunning Snitzel colt passed in just a few hours earlier. At midnight and $200,000 later, the figurative hammer fell and the Johnnie Blue flowed into the night.

At the Track wonders if Mike de Kock, Jehan Malherbe and JJ Van der Linden had a tipple on Thursday afternoon when their Aussie export Snitzel colt aptly named Heavenly Blue bolted in at Vaal at his first start.

***

Mike de Kock says he cannot remember whether the impressive grey was actually named after the famous drink, but he does agree that, if all goes well, the colt might have a Heavenly future.

Owned in partnership by Warne and Wendy Rippon, Mrs and Mrs Arun Chadha, Mike himself and Larry Nestadt. he won his 1600m Maiden on the new Vaal Classic Turf  track by 2.4-lengths, running hard late and winning going away.

“Warne Ripon and I saw the brilliant grey Solow in Dubai and I recall saying to him, ‘we must get a grey horse that can run,’ ” said Chadha, who was at the Vaal with now Grahamstown-based Rippon to lead in Heavenly Blue.

We’ll be holding thumbs that he can go places.