It was a Sunday of revelry and close-quarters finish line racing as 40 horses galloped the hallowed grounds of the Ngong Racecourse seeking to right wrongs and repay the faith of the vast congregation who had swelled to see the track rumble with conquering steeds.
On a day that marked the death of Shakespeare in 1616 and the release of the Rolling Stones’ Sticky Fingers album in 1971, the racing matched the poetic cavorting and lyrical magic of soul-junkie blues with rich and colourful rivalries.
The first race of the afternoon, the 12:25 Teufel Maiden finally saw Cindy repay the belief of trainer Gilly Fraser with such a simple, straightforward, and convincing seven-and-a-half-length win that confused her otherwise haphazard form. As predicted, the 1 pm 1200m Simuni Maiden saw Marlow raw seemingly uncontested.
The 1:35 pm 1400m Graham Trophy was a full-looking race that Pat-See dominated and had her rivals lamenting in the chase, “O for a horse with wings!”
Caesar pronounced “Bid me run, and I will strive with things impossible,” in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar and so it was with the Courtier Handicap at 2:10 pm, the crowded 1600m moonlit mile.
The eight-horse dash produced the upset of the day with Joseph Muya’s Cranleigh, ridden by his son, Henry Muya, defeating the favoured Daytime Girl by a single length in a sprint that went to the finish line.
The 1800m Tangawizi Handicap was a photo finish screaming and cheering and coaxing and cajoling nail-biter that saw Grand Surabi narrowly hold on to victory from an almost there Rahal.
The testing 2400m Zariba Cup saw order restored with a coup worthy of verse as Mary of Burgundy, ridden by the dependable Lesley Sercombe, run a handsome race, winning comfortably; “When I bestride him, I soar, I am a hawk: he trots the air; the earth sings when he touches it; the basest horn of his hoof is more musical than the pipe of Hermes.”
The two-mile 3200m Kenya Gold Cup, a garrulous commentators marathon, was a hugely entertaining three minutes and forty-six seconds that witnessed Deodoro do everything possible to usurp General Lee, but the sovereign stallion held its nerve under pressure to win by a length and a quarter in a crowd thrilling spectacle.
The final race of the afternoon, the 4:30 pm 1000m Alpha Romeo Trophy saw Ripon transform paper form into vanquishing laurels with comfortable honours, as the crowd settled into sundowners and smiles, music and laughter, in the revelry that danced past the sunset and long into the moonlight.
