No go for Hero’s Honour
THE Gary Alexander stable yesterday ruled out suggestions of supplementing last Saturday’s shock SA Derby winner Hero’s Honour for the Vodacom Durban July.
Dean Alexander, the trainer’s brother, said: “He is still a bit immature for a race like that and he still has some growing to do so he will now have a break before bringing him back for the new season.
“At the moment we are not looking at anything with him – he has done what we wanted him to.” However rider Mark Khan apparently has next year’s Sun Met in mind as Alexander said: “Mark mentioned the Met so it is a possibility. We will see how we go.”
The handicappers were mightily impressed by the 55-1 shot’s win and they have raised the gelding a whopping 21 points to 109 for his length and half win.
Coral Fever
Coral Fever has been raised ten points to a new mark of 120 for his success in the Premier’s Champions Challenge while runner-up Abashiri has gone up eight to 117. Interestingly Legal Eagle, who faded badly inside the final furlong after trying to make all, has been dropped two points to a new mark of 123.
Silvan Star (third) and Nother Russia (fourth) have been left unchanged on 108 and 112.
Harold Crawford’s hopes of having his first runner in the great race have been given a boost by the decision to put up Perovskia by ten to 109 for his hard-fought success in the Independent On Saturday Drill Hall.
Rainbow Bridge
Eric Sands has decided to run his exciting Winter Guineas winner Rainbow Bridge in the Winter Classic at Kenilworth on May 26.
He had been in two minds about this previously but yesterday confirmed him a runner, adding: “He is a very special horse and he pulled up well after the Guineas.”
Justin Snaith has set many records in his time but leaving it until the second week of May to have a two-yearold winner ranks as a personal best (or worst, depending on how you look at it). He had run 23 two-year-olds in 48 races before Perfect Symmetry finally won at Kenilworth yesterday.
Some observers have openly wondered whether the lack of success indicates that the latest crop of Snaith juveniles are not that good but the boss was dismissive of any such suggestion.
He said: “Not at all. What has happened has been the plan all along. The handicapping and merit rating systems in this country mean that winning races early on in a horse’s career is not viable for the horse long-term. We have been saying this and keeping on saying it until eventually we reached the point where we decided to do something.”