One Stripe does South Africa proud

GAVIN LERENA and the Drakenstein Studbred One Stripe did South Africa proud in the Gr 1 US$1 million Pegasus World Cup Turf invitational at Gulf Stream Park on Saturday and were cost victory only because they ran out of race track on the tight track, which has a straight of probably less than 400m long.

- DAVID THISELTON

The Hollywood Racing and Rikesh Sewgoolam-owned One World colt pinged the gates and Lerena then did what the horse likes ie. just left him alone and allowed him to find arhythm.

One Stripe ended up one wide of the rail, which was important as it would allow him some options in the straight, and he was about fourth last in the 12 horse field .

He was a bit tight for room in between horses though.

The horse on his outside moved up as they began rounding the turn three furlongs from home.

Gavin was thus able to switch One Stripe outward and he followed the outside train, where there was good pace as another horse had made a surging run from second last.

South African fans were not too perturbed when One Stripe did not make immediate inroads after the slingshot in to the straight and lost a little bit of ground to the horse he had followed, Almendares.

He has always taken his time to accelerate and this is because Gavin, as a fine horseman, ensures he is balanced before asking him for his final effort.

Gavin switched him further outward into space and then changed whip hands and it looked at this stage as if the horses on the inside were getting away, including Test Score who had hit the front with Almendares challenging him.