Khumalo rode well-judged race

Jockey S'Manga Khumalo rode an enterprising race on Whispers Of War to win a MR90 Handicap over 1600m on the Inside Track at Turffontein, Saturday 15 July. As it happened, the race was named after Spies Racing, in keeping with 4Racing's recent initiative to thank trainers for their contributions.

The race was exciting. S'Manga decided to speed up the moderate clip and sent Whispers Of War out to lead the pack at the 1200m mark, allowing him to use his stride and dictate. The favourite, Tizona, loomed ominously going through the 200m mark and drew level, but S'Manga, crouched low, kept our runner going in the drive to the line. Whispers Of War had his nose in front where it mattered.

The stable has just come through an unlucky patch with short-head defeats, horses jumping prematurely from the pens and just some bad luck in running. The connections of Tizona objected on  the grounds of late interference, but the call stayed with us and perhaps that is somewhat of a good omen as we have been back among the winners lately and this kind of hard-fought win by a hard trier brings more momentum as we go into the latter part of the winter season.

Whispers Of War is a five-year-old by Time For War (AUS), and he races for Dr Sagie Naidoo.

Corne Spies said: "Well done all round, it was a pleasant surprise to win a race named in our honour. Whispers Of War has improved after gelding, he tries hard and can win again."