Sunday, 27 November 2011: In the last Graded race at Turffontein on Saturday, the R225 000, Grade 3, Racing Association Handicap(3200m), the Mike de Kock trained Gorongosa(IRE) proved far too classy and won easily under Anthony Delpech.
Atyeb 
(AUS) took over the lead from
Aslan in the back straight, with the favourite,
Kolkata , sitting in fourth. There was no early pace on and Atyeb led the field all the way to the home straight. Delpech sat quietly on
Gorongosa bowling along in midfield.
At the 350m mark Kolkata challenged Atyeb for the lead, while Delpech started to wind
Gorongosa up. With 180m to go
Gorongosa hit the front and went on to win easily by 1.5L from Kolkata in second. Atyeb hung on for third, with Mirage Drive in fourth.
De Kock commented that the filly was bred to get the distance.
“She is by Montjeu and the further they go the better they get,” he said.
"She is a good filly, a really good stayer, but she doesn't want to get there too soon. So I just sat on her and waited a bit before letting her go” added Delpech.
Gorongosa is by Montjeu from the Ezzoud mare Parvenue and recorded her seventh win from ten starts for owner Mrs M Slack of the Wilgerbosdrift Stud.
The Racing Association Handicap wrapped up a tremendously successful day for Phumelela as 18 000 people turned up at Turffontein for Johannesburg's largest horseracing event, the Sansui Summer Cup Day.
