Three-year-old William Robertson was exceptional in his beating of an above average field in Saturday’s Rising Sun Durban Dash over 1100m at Greyville.

William Robertson was perfectly placed behind hot pace-setter Faustino, produced for a finishing effort at the right time to blow away G1 winner Master Archie by almost four lengths, with another G1 winner Ambiorex a further five lengths back.

He was popularly considered to be better over 1400m and even further, but William Robertson has always had a touch of true class and his ability to sprint with some of the fastest around is meritorious indeed.

Jockey SManga Khumalo commented: “He was a bit aggressive with me early, then settled and when I asked him there was a lot to come. He started hanging, but when I changed my stick he straightened and it was race over.”

Said Corne Spies: “I’ve always preached William Robertson. He was unlucky with draws in the classics earlier this year. We decided to bring him back to a sprint and put the blinkers on, this was a very pleasing win.”

William Robertson by Rafeef from Massachusetts (Trippi) races for Corne and Xander Spies, Rob Macnab, Keegan Govender and Jannie de Lange’s Waste Glass Recovery. He’s earned R612,000 with four wins and six places from 14 starts.