Keep the faith in Crown Of Gold

Jack Milner

When it comes to stayers races at Fairview Crown Of Gold has no peers. He has won every race contended over 3200m to 3600m since relocating to Port Elizabeth.

He is now eight-years-old and at some point the good run is likely to come to an end but there is an old expression about follow a winner until he gets beaten and that aptly applies to this son of Silvano.

He has won the Glenlair Trophy over 3200m at Fairview for the last three years and is looking to make it win No 4 when he lines up for the Listed event today. I cannot recall any horse in this country winning the same race for four consecutive years so it is likely to be something of a record.

Joey Ramsden trained Crown Of Gold in Cape Town and he was quite useful even in the Western Cape but has thrived in Port Elizabeth and seems to have lost none of his zest for racing.

He has not visited the No 1 box since winning the PE Gold Cup over 3600m in July last year and ironically that has resulted in his merit rating coming down six points since then. He showed a return to form last time when finishingfourth behind Alghadeer over 2400m but the drop in his rating means he comes into this year’s race with 57.5kg on his back, 2.5kg less than he carried to victory last year. Craig Zackey is aboard once again.

If Crown Of Gold is past his best Coltrane could be the right one. He has won over the distance and last year won the stayers race on Met Day at Kenilworth.

Alghadeer has improved markedly since arriving in Port Elizabeth and has won his last two races over 2400m. Whether the son of Dynasty will see out another 800m only the race will tell us but he is 2.5kg worse off with Crown Of Gold on their last run and over this sort of distance that could see a massive turnaround.

Others to consider are Arezzo and Drill Sargeant.