CHAMPIONS CUP (Grade 1) -  FUTURA wins Champions Cup like a champion

The finish to the Grade 1 Champions Cup provided one of the best finishes of the season in a Grade 1 race. Top class horses faced the starter in the 1600m event. A number of horses were a bit anxious at the start prior to the start. It was a great way in which to finish off the 2014/15 season.

ASHTON PARK was slow and missed the break. FUTURA was also sluggish at the start. LIGHT THE LIGHTS set a blistering pace up front and was never expected to maintain that throughout.

At the entrance to the home straight there was a mere four lengths covering the field. The market rivals had the race pretty much to themselves with 300m left to run. The two Justin Snaith runners, FUTURA and LEGISLATE were running huge races with ICE MACHINE, trained by Charles Laird, separating them. It became a two-way battle as FUTURA and ICE MACHINE fought out a desperately close finish to the line. Jockey Bernard Fayd'Herbe had to use all of his resources plus those of FUTURA to win a close decision with ICE MACHINE and jockey Anton Marcus.

The four year old son of DYNASTY has now won nine from fifteen starts and has also netted just short of R4,25 million. LEGISLATE was not disgraced in third while ICE MACHINE will not be too long in picking up another Grade1 feature.

FUTURA 5 b H Sire: Dynasty Dam: Scribblin' The Cat DamBy: Badger's Drift.

BRED BY: Guy Murdoch.

OWNED BY: Messrs John T Freeman and W J C Mitchell and Drakenstein Stud (Nom: Mrs G A Rupert).

GE964 - Race 8 - R1M - CHAMPIONS CUP (Grade 1) Open - 1800m
Horse	Jockey	Trainer	Al/Bl	kg	Dr	Fin	Dist	Time	OP-SP	Prev
1 FUTURA	Bernard Fayd'Herbe	S J Snaith	A	60.0	6	1	0.00	111.04	13/10-1/1F	GE908
3 ICE MACHINE	Anton Marcus	C Laird	A	59.0	9	2	0.05	111.05	8/1-8/1	GE908
2 LEGISLATE	Richard Fourie	S J Snaith	A	60.0	5	3	2.80	111.57	22/10-33/10	GE945
10 HELDERBERG BLUE	Donovan Dillon	M W Bass	A	57.0	4	4	2.85	111.58	25/1-33/1	GE908
6 AFRIKABURN	Stuart Randolph	D Kannemeyer	A B	58.5	10	5	5.10	112.01	33/1-33/1	GP835
9 ASHTON PARK	Karl Neisius	M W Bass	A	57.0	7	6	5.25	112.04	66/1-100/1	GE839
8 WILLOW MAGIC (AUS)	Piere Strydom	S G Tarry	A	57.0	1	7	5.50	112.08	14/1-12/1	GE945
11 DEPUTY JUD	Gavin Lerena	M G Azzie	A	55.5	8	8	6.50	112.28	66/1-50/1	GE908
5 NO WORRIES	Warren Kennedy	G H Van Zyl	A B	59.0	12	9	6.55	112.29	33/1-75/1	GE899
4 HALVE THE DEFICIT	Raymond Danielson	S G Tarry	A	59.0	3	10	6.80	112.33	33/1-50/1	GE908
7 PUNTA ARENAS	Ian Sturgeon	S Elley	A C	58.0	2	11	7.55	112.48	11/2-8/1	GE908
12 LIGHT THE LIGHTS	Johnny Geroudis	G S Kotzen	A B	55.5	11	12	23.55	115.65	66/1-100/1	GE904