Wendy Whitehead’s big and handsome son of Curved Ball, Hard To Play, flew to a phenomenal victory at Greyville on Sunday in the Pinnacle Stakes.
A field littered with Gr1 performed horses and Stakes Winners, #kznbreds London Call and Dawn Calling were the fancied runners and Dawn Calling was unlucky once more, collecting her 11th second place!
Wendy Whitehead scored a back-to-back double with Hard To Play showing a tremendous turn of foot to land the Pinnacles Stakes and Rocking Ruby (out of a Mogok mare) finishing too strongly for the opposition in the next.
Once Stuart Randolph released the brake, Hard To Play sailed past the filly as if he had jumped in at the furlong pole over the 1200m turf.
Hard To Play, a duplicate in looks of his sire Curved Ball who is the first son of Fastnet Rock to stand at stud in South Africa, has an outstanding temperament and truly is a gentle giant. The four year old out of La Mascarata by Kahal is bred by Dr Ian Heyns and has earned R 425,125 in stakes, with five wins and five places from 14 starts.
He is part owned by trainer Wendy Whitehead, along with Messrs Geoff Perkins and Michael Sinnema. Curved Ball had another brilliant winner on Friday evening, with Lola Crawford-trained Miss Twist flying to the finish under jockey Craig Zackey. She has won and placed from five starts.
Curved Ball from small numbers has produced 5 winners this season, and 17 places. He produced 33.3% winners to runners for the 2017 season, including Gr2 2nd placed Seerite in the Dingaans, with over R2-million in stakes from 51 runners.
Curved Ball stands at Bush Hill Stud.