Boyes Drive leads to victory

Trainer Dean Kannemeyer has been having a great winter season in KwaZulu-Natal but while his string in Durban have been bringing home the bacon, the next generation are sitting back in Cape Town being groomed for the new season.


One of those looks to be three-year-old Boyes Drive. This Argentinian-bred son of Equal Stripes has only raced four times for two wins and goes for his third victory in Race 5 at Kenilworth today, a MR 78 Handicap over 1600m.

“I was going to bring him to Durban but he is very unsound and I felt the softer conditions in the Cape would be preferable,” said Kannemeyer yesterday. “The key is to watch him go down to the start. If he moves well then you can expect a decent run. If he reproduces his last run he must be a contender.”

He was a little inconsistent in his early races but after running a shocker behind Charles Lytton in a MR 68 Handicap over 1600m at Kenilworth last November, Kannemeyer must have sat done with the connections and decided to have Boyes Drive gelded.

“He was a rig but he was playing up so we decided to have the remaining testicle removed,” explained Kannemeyer. The result was spectacular. Despite going off at 20-1 Boyes Drive accelerated like a champion and raced past his opposition to win going away by 2.25 lengths.

As long as he does not suffer from the second-run-after-a-layoff syndrome, he should make it three wins from five starts. He proved he could handle the wet going last time out and seems to have run under the handicapper’s radar as Boyes Drive was penalised just 3kg for the win.

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