Super disaster for De Kock
RELOCATION: YORKER OFF TO UK AFTER FAILING TO ADAPT TO CONDITIONS IN DUBAI
Heavy Metal, Cagiva make promising comebacks.
They can rename “Super Saturday”. For 2015, it’s definitely a case of “Sad Saturday”. It was 24 hours of disaster for SA punters. No joy in Auckland, none in Dubai and very little cheer at Turffontein.
For many times champion trainer Mike de Kock it was even worse.
He will have left Meydan racecourse gutted by the fact his star performer, Vercingetorix, had broken down in the final event on the card, the 1800m Jebel Hatta.
Mike knows the ups-anddowns of the racing game, but this was a particularly cruel blow with Dubai World Cup Night just three weeks away.
For punters, the defeat of Vercingetorix put the lid on a forgettable day.
We hadn’t exactly envisaged defeat at the hands of Pakistan in the Cricket World Cup and can you imagine how many Meydan Jackpot and Jackpot Quickmix tickets were riding on the former Daily News winner.
Yet, the most upsetting news for me - as the horse is a favourite of mine - is that Yorker hasn’t done well in Dubai and is to be moved to Mike’s stable in the UK.
His website stated: “Yorker has taken more time than expected to adapt to the conditions and has not made enough progress during his time in the UAE.”
Geoff Woodruff, who trained Yorker to three Grade 1 wins, will confirm what I said to him when he said the horse was going to Dubai. “I just hope it doesn’t end up like Bold Silvano and JJ The Jet Plane whose careers ended there.”
The positive news is that there’s no indication of any problem with Yorker, but it’s disappointing that a race like the Singapore Airlines Cup in May is now out of the window.
As far as Via Africa - unplaced in the Meydan Sprint - is concerned we must simply hope the reason she never got seriously involved was she was “ring rusty”. Mike had warned it “won’t be easy”.
For the De Kock stable, there was a crumb of comfort in Entisaar’s impressive debut win in the Ruffian Stakes - the Aussie-bred following in the footsteps of Majmu who won this 1000m sprint 12 months ago.
Another feature win for an Australian-bred following Estiraaj (Investec Derby) and Harry’s Son (Betting World Guineas). Little wonder then South Africans were big buyers at the Inglis sale in Melbourne.
Two De Kock favourites, Santa Carolina and Noor Dubai, disappointed their backers.
Wild Ash left the grey trailing in the Sun Chariot Handicap, but I believed Jack Milner was right and that Noor Dubai was the best bet of the day in the last.
I never got to see the Turffontein “Replay Blitz”, but hope it read something like this. Stipes report: “Mr Delpech was asked to explain why - from a favourable draw - he had his mount, Noor Dubai, at the rear of the field turning for home thus setting her an impossible task.”
Noor Dubai rattled home into fifth place so the one redeeming factor for punters is that it’s only a temporary loan.
The daughter of Archipenko is going to win a few races.
While the winners of both the Storm Bird Stakes (Isca) and Entisaar look above average, there are probably far better juveniles yet to race including the top KZN stables. Mike Miller’s raiders had clearly won weak contests in their home province.
Commentator Nico K was right to laud Heavy Metal’s excellent fourth in a sprint earlier in the day, but my focus was on his stablemate, Cagiva, also making a comeback.
It looked as if Cagiva pulled up OK and - if that was the case - then he could pay to follow after a couple more outings.
Indeed, the horse who beat Wylie Hall by two lengths 12 months ago might well provide Chris van Niekerk with his third July winner in the last four years.
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By the time this lands on your breakfast table, one day of Cheltenham will already have been completed.
This is the first Festival I’ve missed in 24 years and my usual travelling companions aren’t letting me forget it. Their last SMS was “Molly, we’ve found a great new pub which we’re sure you would have loved.”
It will be some consolation if I can back a few winners during the rest of the week and my fancies are as follows: TODAY: Windsor Park in the Neptune Hurdle. TOMORROW: Ptit Zig in the JLT Novices Chase. Eduard (16-1) Eachway for the Ryanair Chase. FRIDAY: Peace & Co (win) and Devilment (25-1) Eachway for the Triumph Hurdle. Gold Cup: Many Clouds looks Eachway value at 8-1.