De Kock aims for fourth Met

FILLIES and mares have won three of the last eight runnings of the Sun Met but Mike de Kock, pictured, freely admits that he did not consider running Cascapedia until shortly before the second supplementary stage.

The Irish-bred has won five out of six and is as short as 9-1.

De Kock said: “She has defied her mark in each of her last two starts. She had no right to win the Turffontein Pinnacle on December 23 yet she did and in the London News last time she again had no right to beat the opposition at the weights. It was a good field and she won again.

“The manner in which she has risen through the ratings has impressed me – in fact I think she is still under-rated – and I thought she deserved her place in the field.”

The maestro is bidding for his fourth Met win following the legendary Horse Chestnut in 1999, Badger’s Coast 12 months later and the filly Igugu in 2012.

He also runs Heavenly Blue (25-1) and 33-1 shot Nother Russia.

His Naafer is 7-2 favourite with the sponsors for Saturday’s Betting World Cape Flying Championship despite not having raced for two months.

De Kock explained: “The plan was to run him in the race in which Mujaafy was fourth (Diadem) and I thought he would have been good enough to win it but he was sick with a temperature when he arrived. If you take that away, everything has gone well with him. He is a good horse and he is a quality sprinter.”