Hollywoodbets-sponsored Corne Spies Racing Team and their 7yo Rafeef gelding William Robertson overcame the odds and registered the 17th win of an illustrious career, when he dug deep late to record his second win in the R300 000 TAB Gr2 JJ The Jet Plane Stakes, which brought the feature curtain down on the major day at Turffontein on Saturday.

This concluded a red-letter Classic Day for the Spies stable, who had earlier captured the Grade 1 Wilgerbosdrift SA Fillies Classic with Hazy Dazy.

Ryan Munger marked his third winner of the afternoon – his seventh on the Ridgemont-bred gelding. Racing from an inside gate on sticky ground under top weight, the speed soldier gallantly made ground gradually down the inside and then got the measure of Taxi To The Moon (5-1) by 0,40 lengths to register 57,04 secs for the 1000m. 

The Spies team has followed the same trajectory as their 2025 programme with William Robertson, who now looks very ready to defend his Gr1 Computaform Sprint crown on 4 April. 

Corne Spies was understandably emotional after the race and said: "To have William Robertson win this race for a second time - a race named after one of the greatest SA sprinters of all time - is just so special. You have to have been in racing for a long time to understand the gravity of it. To be competing at this this level at his age is just extraordinary. You don't see this every day. Thanks to his owners and supporters who are here on track. This has been a great day for us. God willing we can win the Computaform Sprint again."

Munger said: "I could not believe William Robertson was 14-1 today, he's a basically one of the best sprinters in the country. What a win and what a horse, I just love riding him. From about the 300m mark I knew it was race over."

Raced in a partnership by Rob Macnab (who celebrated his first Turffontein double in a lifetime of racing), Keegan Govender, Xander Spies, Corne Spies Racing (Pty) Ltd & Jannie de Lange’s Waste Glass Recovery (Pty) Ltd, the Ridgemont-bred William Robertson is by a former Computaform Sprint winner in the fabulous Rafeef (Redoute’s Choice), out of the thrice-winning Trippi mare, Massachusetts. 

The outstanding gelding cost R500 000 on the BSA National 2yo Sale and is a winner of 17 of his 55 starts with 19 places – he has earned R3 432 563. 

William Robertson was born at Ridgemont in the beautiful Robertson Valley and was seemingly named after Dr William Robertson, the Scottish minister after whom the delightful town, established in 1852, is named.