Wernars Champ Staves Off Former Stablemate In Thriller

The third horse this century after Eventuail and Yorker to register the Summer Cup- Premier’s Champions Challenge double, the Wernars family’s gutsy Argentinian-bred Puerto Manzano came back to his best with a thrilling victory in the R2 million Grade 1 season climax at Turffontein on Saturday.

The World Sports Betting Gr1 Premier’s Champions Challenge was the final elite event of 4Racing’s inaugural ‘The Championships’, five high-octane racedays from February and which reached a summit on Saturday.

With 12 of the 13 runners Hollywoodbets Durban July entries, the 2000m race was always going to be a competitive affair, but the pace was sedate as Muzi Yeni dictated matters early on the front-running MK’s Pride.

Inside the final 250m, any one of ten horse could win it and the upset was on the cards as Chase Maujean bounced Second Base into a length lead.

Riding for his life, Keagan de Melo had Puerto Manzano (6-1) building to full volume down the inside and in an unlikely catch, the son of Seek Again got up to nab his former stablemate Second Base (33-1) on the line to win in a time of 127,13 secs.

Second Base, who raced previously in the Wernars silks, had recently been sold into the Robyn Klaasen yard off a BSA Online Sale.

Rain In Holland (15-4) maintained her form resurgence in third and under a length off the winner, with the luckless favourite Billy Bowlegs (28-10) a short head away in fourth.

Registering his second Gr1 success, Puerto Manzano has now won 8 races with 8 places from 23 starts for stakes of R3 855 600.

Purchased by Justin Vermaak, the winner was bred by Dr Ignacio Pavlovsky at Haras Carampangue and is a son of Speightstown’s Gr1 Hollywood Derby winning son Seek Again out of the two time winning Orpen mare, Poser.

Racing was delayed due to storms over Turffontein after this race.