Buffalo Bill Cody in Queen’s Plate line-up
MIKE de Kock has confirmed that Buffalo Bill Cody will line-up in the R1.5-million L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate over 1 600m at Kenilworth on Saturday January 5.
“The Queen’s Plate has always been the plan and then he’ll stay on in Cape Town to run in the Sun Met,” said De Kock yesterday.
Buffalo Bill Cody, whose initials (BBC) are the same as a famous UK broadcaster, enhanced his reputation on Monday with a facile 3.20-length win over Captain And Master in a Pinnacle Stakes over 1 600m at Turffontein. While the opposition was hardly the level the Irish-bred son of Redoute’s Choice will face in the Queen’s Place, jockey Gavin Lerena did not move a muscle and was merely a passenger on an equine engine who coasted by his opposition like the Orient Express.
Among the nominations for the Grade 1 Queen’s Plate are Legal Eagle, who is unbeaten in 10 starts over the distance, Green Point Stakes runner-up Undercover Agent, Durban July winner Do It Again and Rainbow Bridge. They were the first four past the post in the Grade 2 Green Point Stakes but only 0.40 lengths separated them.
Rainbow Bridge, halfbrother to another De Kock star, Hawwaam, was undefeated going into the race. He was clearly unsuited to the slow early pace as he was pulling Bernard Fayd’Herbe out of the saddle but finished best of all. It was also reported that he carried almost 1kg overweight which could well have made the difference between winning and losing.
However, the strength of the field does not end there. De Kock has also entered Grade 1 Cape Guineas winner Soqrat, who is unbeaten over 1 600m, while Justin Snaith has also nominated brilliant filly Snowdance. Twist Of Fate, runner-up to Soqrat in the Guineas, has been entered by trainer Joey Ramsden who also has Hat Puntano in the line-up.
Buffalo Bill Cody was bred in the Northern Hemisphere and was an April foal. That puts him around seven months younger than his locally bred rivals. He has run six times for five wins and a fourth place and currently has a merit rating of 108. He will be able to claim a northern hemisphere allowance when he runs in the Queen’s Plate and the Met so that will help his cause as he will be getting weight from all Green Point Stakes runners.
He was also nominated to run in the Grade 2 Peninsula Handicap over 1 800m on the same card but De Kock says that’s not the path they will be following. “It was always our plan to go Queen’s Plate into the Met. We nominated him for the Peninsula Handicap more as a back-up plan.”
Despite the arduous journey Ghaalla and Soqrat had to Cape Town De Kock says Buffalo Bill Cody will travel down by road. “We need to get him out of here as soon as possible so it is too late to organise other option. We’ll probably break up the journey to Cape Town.”