Fort Vogue’s scintillating victory in the Peninsula Handicap, capped off a superb day for owner Marsh Shirtliff who had the privilege of having four winners in his colours at Kenilworth yesterday.

Sam The Man kicked off proceedings by prevailing from start to finish in the third. The up in trip was appreciated by the Saumarez gelding who was allowed to use his huge stride for the first time since coming out of the sprints to win his maiden convincingly by a length and a half over Slinga Malinga. He is owned by Bass, Shirtliff, Rippon and Cohen.

Shirtliff was allowed a brief rest while Squashy Joy returned to the winners enclosure before making it three in a row. Hammie’s Boy, under Christopher Puller, displayed similar tactics to Sam The Man by heading to the front and kicked clear to make it Shirtliff’s second on the day. The highly thought of Derby prospect, has disappointed since winning his maiden convincingly and it has been difficult for us to pin point a reason for his sub standard performances but he put it together well in this company, returning a handsome price of R14 a win for his followers.

The lightly weighted Shimmering Flame returned a similar dividend in the next before Fort Vogue snuck in under Karl Neisius to win the feature of the day, The Peninsula Handicap. The Fort Wood gelding owned by Shirtliff, Jooste and Van Niekerk, moved up well in the closing stages to upstage the previously trained Bass inmate Thundering Jet by the shortest of heads, from in close third, the front running Page trained Noblewood, who was gallant in defeat.

The red letter day for Shirtliff and Bass will have the pair feeling confident about going into Saturday’s double feature race header given the current stable form and both will be wishing similar success.

Fort Vogue