Trainer Grant Maroun provided 24 year old Jarryd Penny with the  first Graded race win of his short career when the lightweight booted home the rejuvenated Barton Hall Stud-bred Viking Hero to win the R250 000 Gr3 Tommy Hotspur Handicap at Turffontein on Tuesday evening.

The night belonged to the good red wine on four legs that is the rare sprinting son of Mullins Bay.

The commitment of the Grant Maroun team and some natural sounding up have contributed to a sparkling revival that will see him take in the Senor Santa as his next target.

Penny rode a copybook race on Maroun’s instructions – which included a confidence boosting pressure quote of ‘ride him like I told you and you will win’, as he was given a leg up. The Maroun sports psychology worked a charm!

The field was reduced to just nine runners with Mod Barley scratched in the absence of a suitable replacement for the stood-down Khumalo.

After Jade Bay had ripped away at breakneck speed early, Penny allowed Viking Hero to relax and produced him at the right time inside the 250m marker.

The gelding powered home to win by 0,30 lengths in a snappy 56,52 secs,

Viking Hero was unwanted at 20-1 in the betting and his victory contributed to the evening’s lotto-style  Pick 6 payout of R247 328.

The favourite Moofeed, who was bidding for the Hotspur double, also ran on a touch late and was a half-length further back in third, with Aurum Pot running fourth.

This was Viking Hero’s second feature win on the trot, after grabbing top honours in the Gr3 Lebelo Sprint three runs back.

He has now won 6 races with 19 places from 38 starts for stakes of R708 350.

A 6yo gelding in the prime of his career, Viking Hero was bred by Ken and Lynne Twort of Barton Hall Stud and is a son of deceased Summerhill stallion Mullins Bay out of the four-time winning All Fired Up mare, Out Of Norway.

He was purchased for R30 000 by the Tawny Syndicate off the 2011 Emperors Palace National Two Year Sale.

– extract sportingpost.co.za