The Duncan Howells trained Neptune’s Rain (Antonius Pius) prevailed in a dramatic running of the Gr3 Strelitzia Stakes over 1100m at Scottsville on Sunday.
The R200 000 feature, won last year by subsequent Gr1 winner The Secret Is Out (Captain Al), had a wide open look to it, with Cape raider Made In Hollywood (Querari) eventually going off the tote favourite.

However, the race was marred by a false start, after which a number of the 2yo fillies played up badly, with the culprits including Awesomeness (Alado) and Princess Peach (Captain Al), with the pair having to be taken out and reloaded.

When the 12 horse field eventually got away, it was Flamboyant (Horse Chestnut), Awesomeness and Lolita Delago (Dan De Lago) who headed affairs, with the likes of Neptune’s Rain and Made In Hollywood further back in running.

Neptune’s Rain took the running up with 400m left to go and kept going strongly to hold off a late challenge from Made In Hollywood (the latter was attempting to provide trainer Joey Ramsden with a quick feature double with the Ramsden trained Attenborough having picked up the Listed In Full Flight Handicap earlier in the day). Well ridden by Keagan De Melo, Neptune’s Rain kept going to score by 1.25 lengths over the favourite, who was not disgraced back in second.

Another Cape raider, Gold Image (Horse Chestnut) filled the third spot, ahead of yet another Cape runner Princess Peach (Captain Al).
Owned by Mr D Maclean, the Highlands Farms Stud bred Neptune’s Rain has now won two of just three outings and looks destined to line up in the Gr1 Allan Robertson Fillies Championship.