Equina romps to victory

CALL it ironic, weird or a “sign”, but it’s one of those funny things that tickles our fancy when a female horse  finally wins a prestigious race, moreso Africa’s oldest sponsored race, the Castle Tankard. We had to wait for a long time, 16 years to be precise, for Castle Tankard to finally get a filly winner — in the form of a young star with a mellifluous name, Equina.

Even the bookmakers never made the four-year-old filly their favourite for the 52nd contest of the Castle Tankard at Borrowdale Race Course last Saturday because she was up against some luminaries who exceeded among the older set in recent seasons.

But in a spectacular style, Equina won the US$50 000 stakes Grade one race in a time of 119.47 seconds ahead of last year’s winner A King is Born. Pre-race favourite Coltrane settled for third place while South African based Super Trooper claimed fourth place.

Equinna was ridden by Zimbabwean born jockey Karl Zechner who is now based in South Africa and is only in her first year in training under Amy Bronkhost.
While Zechner admitted the race was tough, he believed that Equina deserved to win it after the investment put into the development of the horse.

“Winning over the old foe on such a memorable day does mean a lot. I needed to break the back of her and I think it’s a dream start. But I think the way things have played with Amy (Bronkhost), she has prepared the horse to perfection. She made an investment on how future races against the male horses will unfold. She deserved to win,” said an elated Zechner.

The victory was Zechner’s 226th win in a career spanning over 4 032 rides that have yielded 1 283 placings while for Equina, it was her seventh win out of 18 runs that have yielded five placings.

 newsdesk@fingaz.co.zw