Marshall scores with Tap O’ Noth
ONLY twice this century have the winners of the Cape Classic and what is now the Western Cape Fillies Championship both gone on to land that season’s Guineas races - but you might not want to bet against it happening a third time after events at Kenilworth on Saturday.
Tap O’Noth made it three out of four in a manner that confirmed
Vaughan Marshall’s long held view that this could be the natural successor to William Longsword while fellow Captain Al product Snowdance didn’t just beat her 14 rivals, she annihilated them.
Her four-and-a quarter length winning margin was the biggest this Fillies Guineas prep has seen in more than 16 years, and at 15-1 she served up the race’s biggest shock since Andries Steyn stunned Cape Town with 66-1 supposed nohoper Our Girl in 2006.
Fayd’Herbe
Bernard Fayd’Herbe certainly helped make Jack Mitchell and Gaynor Rupert’s day by producing a masterclass in how to overcome a bad draw. Admittedly he was helped by being on a free-running horse but how refreshing to see a positive approach instead of the usual easing back, tacking across and guaranteeing the leaders a ten-length start. The trainers of some of the other fillies maintained that their jockeys gave him too much rope but Fayd’Herbe’s advantage was only two lengths early in the straight.
From that point on, though, the Cheveley-bred left them for dead and, when her rider looked back 150m out, he was five lengths clear and still coasting.
He said: “I wanted her to extend them and show off her beautiful action. Another furlong isn’t going to be a problem and I think she will come on from this.”
Justin Snaith, winning this race for the fifth time and confirming that the WSB Cape Fillies Guineas will be next, added: “Every jockey that has got off her says she is the real deal. She has everything – pedigree, temperament, the lot.”
Magical Wonderland
Even money favourite Magical Wonderland fared best of the rest but on this evidence she and all the others have a mountain to climb on the first Saturday in December.
Tap O’Noth’s victory might have looked ordinary by comparison but the 3-1 favourite quickened with real authority when asked and his connections are convinced that Alec and Gillian Foster’s years of dedicated breeding are set to reap a rich reward.
MJ Byleveld, also successful on Eighth Wonder in the 2015 Cape Classic, said: “I was caught a bit flat-footed at one stage but he was only gathering himself up. When he picked it up he ran to the line.”
Vaughan Marshall added: “He is one hell of a horse. The winter course and 1 400m was too sharp for him – a mile, possibly further, will be his trip. We will put him in the Selangor (18 November) but running him in it is not cast in stone.”
Undercover Agent was only beaten three-quarters of a length with Corne Orffer reporting: “This was too short for him. He needs a mile-plus and it will be a different story on the new course.”
A full-of-hope Brett Crawford added: “He will improve with racing - he is still a big baby and he never had cover. He could be better given more of a chance. He goes for the Selangor and the Guineas.”
Snaith is thinking of giving the Selangor a miss with Cot Campbell (third) and fourth-placed Sir Frenchie’s main target is not the Guineas but the R2.5 million of the Lanzerac Ready To Run a fortnight on Saturday.
Dutch Philip, last two furlongs out, ran on well to take seventh despite his nearimpossible task at the weights and Candice Bass-Robinson said: “We didn’t learn much from that – he had too much ground to make up – but I think he could be a sprinter.”
Interestingly Aldo Domeyer is singing from much the same hymn sheet, saying: “He was only four lengths off them, giving away four and five kilos, but I think there are a lot of sprint races he could win.”
Copper Force
Copper Force, carrying the Etienne Braun colours, earned a tilt at the Queen’s Plate by landing the Pinnacle under Grant van Niekerk who has been stung by recent press criticism, particularly when it made its way onto Facebook.
He hit back by going on to land a treble, taking his score from the last four Cape Town meetings to ten.
Guineas hope Eyes Wide Open pleased Glen Kotzen by keeping on to take a closeup fifth in the Pinnacle - “He was rated to finish five lengths off them yet he was only beaten two with the jock not hard on him. It’s the Selangor next.”
Not many people win on their first ride but Sivuylie (known as Levis) Kuse did just that on Gimme Katrina in the Work Riders’ Maiden. “I’m relieved,” declared the 34-year-old but he didn’t elaborate on whether this was because he had justified his own expectations or those of his boss.