Aragosta slams them in Summer Stayers

Winless in the nineteen months since his sensational WSB Gr1 SA Derby victory at Turffontein, Aragosta’s R5 million Betway Summer Cup ‘gallop’ eight days earlier and 1400km away, paid handsome dividends as the fit-as-a-fiddle gelding toyed with his opposition to win the R225 000 Spinawina Slots Listed Cape Summer Stayers at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth on Saturday.

The Sporting Post reports that the now 5yo Aragosta had run a reasonable seventh and 4,15 lengths off Royal Victory in the Highveld flagship last weekend, and Saturday’s gutsy win was a training feat of some proportions by Mike de Kock, who suffered an agonizingly narrow defeat in the WSB Cape Fillies Guineas a half hour earlier.

Richard Fourie rode a typically well-judged race from near the action in the 2500m contest as Otto Luyken lead Raisahallelujah for much of the race.

Making an early dash for home, Fourie found the two leaders a bit tough to shake off initially. But the further they went, the better Aragosta found his feet, and the topweight stayed on well to give weight and a beating.

At the line, Aragosta (4-1) clocked 158,37 secs and had 2,75 lengths to spare over fellow raider Raiseahallelujah (20-1) and the favourite One Way Traffic (14-10).

A son of Ridgemont’s  Champion Sprinter Rafeef (Rafeef), the winner was bred by Wilgerbosdrift and Mauritzfontein and is out of the Galileo mare Miss Galidora, who was placed over 2000m at 3 in the UK in 2 starts.

She is a half sister to French Guineas winner Clodovil, and while she clearly throws stamina into the mix, it is interesting that Aragosta’s full sister Mrs Browning won the Joburg Tourism Gr3 Carry On Alice Stakes run over 1160m on Betway Summer Cup day!

“As we noted last week, Aragosta was just short of his peak for the Summer Cup.” He quipped: “We gave him a gallop in a R5-million race last week and he pulled up so well we decided to run him here.”