Silver Mountain Tops Cape Fillies Guineas
Description:
Silver Mountain (SAf) showed her class in no uncertain fashion when running out a five-length winner of the World Sports Betting Cape Fillies Guineas (SAf-I) at Kenilworth Dec. 5.
An impressive winner last time out of the Choice Carriers Fillies Championship (SAF-II) when overcoming a wide draw, the Mike Bass-trained daugher of Silvano (GER) was backed to the exclusion of the other runners for Saturday's R1 million ($70,000) contest, eventually jumping a 9-10 favorite, with only unbeaten Mike de Kock runner Noor attracting any other serious money.
The 1,600-meter contest for three-year-old fillies was delayed slightly after longshot Anglet spread a shoe at the start. Further drama ensued when 125-1 shot Valediction dropped rider Gareth Wright around the first turn. Wright suffered no injury, however, and took part in the following race.
Our Destiny made the early running, with A Time to Dream, Miss Marker, and Ocean Swell, and it was the latter who went on to make the running and at one stage had a six-length advantage over her rivals. The favorite, who started from a rather wide post, raced well off the pace early on, and it was only with 400 meters to run that jockey Aldo Domeyer asked Silver Mountain to quicken.
The pair came with a devastating run up the center of the track and in a matter of strides coming to 300 meters it was just a matter of who would run second. Silver Mountain spurted clear putting daylight between herself and the field and was eventually ridden out hands and heels to a five-length score. Runner up Our Destiny belied her odds of 100-1 to put up a career-best effort in second, with the winner's stablemate Tafferty Tart (whose sire Trippi is responsible for runner-up finishers in the past three years running) filling the third spot ahead of Anglet and the previously unbeaten Dynasty sired fillies Bela-Bela and Noor.
Silver Mountain, now a winner of four of her five outings, stopped the clock in a time of 1:38.72.
The brilliant filly also provided the Mike Bass stable with some much needed good news, after a year which saw Mike fighting for his life in hospital. The veteran trainer, who had previously won the Cape Fillies Guineas with Sweet Chestnut, Sport's Chestnut, and Sun Classique, eventually had his right leg amputated below the knee after it had become dangerously infected. In his absence, daughter and assistant trainer Candice Robinson has been largely in charge of the Milnerton-based stable.
The race was also a sweet result for the Bass yard, as they had previously sent out the runner-up for the past three years in a row.
Owned by Andreas Jacobs' Maine Chance Farms, Silver Mountain was bred by the Beck family's Highlands Farm Stud.
She is the second daughter of Silvano to triumph in the Cape Fillies Guineas, with her paternal half sister Field Flower having caused a 50-1 shock in the 2009 renewal. Silvano, by Lomitas, who stands at Maine Chance in Robertson, recently achieved the remarkable feat of siring the first three past the post in this year's Vodacom Durban July (SAf-I), when sons Power King, Punta Arenas, and Tellina ran 1-2-3.
The beautifully bred Silver Mountain is out of Olympic Duel Stakes winner Our Table Mountain, a Fusaichi Pegasus half sister to Breeders Cup Mile (gr. I) winner and sire Artie Schiller .