30 Jan FMM at The L’Ormarins King’s Plate
Charles Dickens Is King! After twenty years of sponsoring South Africa’s most prestigious weight-for-age mile horse race, Gaynor Rupert and her Drakenstein team finally celebrated a victory in the 163rd running of the L’Ormarins King’s Plate at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth Race Course on January 6, courtesy of Charles Dickens, a 4-year-old who has been labelled ‘The future of Drakenstein’.
The R2 million L’Ormarins Gr1 King’s Plate became Charles Dickens’ show as the colt’s electrifying late burst from midfield led the rest of the field home, in the process giving trainer Candice Bass-Robinson and jockey Aldo Domeyer their maiden success in the major event. The chestnut champion settled in the early running before streaking through and stamping his authority to beat See It Again by 2,75 lengths in a time of 97,88 secs. Royal Aussie placed third a further 1,25 lengths back.
Now a winner of 10 races with 3 places from 13 starts for stakes of R5 119 813, when Drakenstein boss Gaynor Rupert accepted the beautiful silverware from Lord Robin Renwick, she conceded that Saturday, 6 January 2024 would go down as the most memorable race day of her life.
As always, FMM was a sponsor for the L’Ormarins King’s Plate (formerly Queen’s Plate). FMM displayed some cars from its world class collection, all with light blue colouring in keeping with the event’s colour code. On show in the Style Village area was a 1953 BMW Isetta, while at the entry point on the in-field there was a 1928 Ford Model A, a 1934 Mercedes-Benz Cabriolet B and a 1955 Chevrolet BelAir.
