Summer Cup: Quid Pro Quo gives boys a galloping lesson

Racegoers enjoyed lovely weather and plenty of excitement on Betway Summer Cup day at Turffontein on Saturday – but had less luck in the betting stakes with a succession of outsiders pitching up in the winner’s circle.

One of the few well fancied winners was 5-2 shot Quid Pro Quo, the champion filly who was sensational in thrashing a strong field of males in the Grade 2 Betway Dingaans, the main supporting feature on the programme.

“Wow, wow, wow!” said master jockey Piere Strydom when asked to comment on Quid Pro Quo’s victory.

“Her acceleration was unbelievable,” added the 58-year-old veteran who’s seen most things the racing game has to offer.

Strydom said, pre-race, he had tended to agree with pundits who felt a four-month break without a comeback run would prove too big a challenge for the Equus champion juvenile – especially against the Highveld’s top three-year-olds, and particularly favourite Greaterix who was coming off a dominant hat-trick.

Only female in the race

The unfashionably pedigreed daughter of Lance was the only female to take on the boys in the historic 1600m Dingaans, which carried a R300,000 bigger purse than the companion race, the Betway Fillies Mile.

That choice of battleground was a clear indication of trainer Barend Botes’s confidence in his prodigy.

However, handsome grey colt Greaterix was widely touted as the best bet on the 11-race Summer Cup day card and started as 7-10 favourite for the Dingaans.

From the No 1 draw, jockey Kabelo Matsunyane took Mike de Kock-trained Greaterix straight to the front to set the pace. Parisian Walkway and Fire Attack were in close attendance, just ahead of Quid Pro Quo. In the straight, the pacemakers still held sway – for a few seconds.

The filly slid past them, to Strydom’s surprise as he hadn’t moved a muscle. And that was that.

Knowledgeable horse people are murmuring that this could be one of the best female horses yet produced in South Africa in recent times.

While Strydom and the crowd enthused, owner-breeder Gerald Kalil and trainer Botes seemed more stunned at their fortune than delighted.

Greatness beckons and racing fans will be eager to learn of Quid Pro Quo’s future plans. She hasn’t yet been entered for the upcoming big Guineas races in Cape Town. The Highveld Triple Crown and Triple Tiara series lie in wait. Which will she choose?

Or will she be sent abroad to race for much bigger prize money?

No luck for Oisin Murphy

Another of the shorter priced winners on the day was World Of Alice, who impressed in claiming the Grade 3 Betway Fillies Mile at 9-2.

Jockey Craig Zackey rode a pearler on the Sean Tarry-trained three-year-old, surging up to catch UK champion jockey Oisin Murphy and Fiery Pegasus in the final strides.

UK champ Murphy lent the 2024 Summer Cup a sprinkling of stardust even though he didn’t ride a winner.

Another star turn came from South Africa’s only woman jockey Rachel Venniker, who travelled up from Durban to land two winners and two runners-up.