Soqrat shows his class
PINNACLE STAKES WIN SENDS OUT A STRONG WARNING TO HIS RIVALS
Options open for his next race.
Mike de Kock-trained Soqrat showed he will be a force in the Highveld and Cape summer seasons when he powered to the front of the pack halfway up the straight to win a Pinnacle Stakes over 1600m on the Turffontein Inside track on Saturday.
De Kock had warned prior to the race that the Australian-bred four-year-old was not 100% ready but he was hoping for a good performance.
He drifted in the betting to go off at 16-10 but Soqrat proved there is no substitute for class, getting the better of long-time leader Flying Winger 200m from home and cruising to a facile victory.
Well-supported stable companion Like A Panther ran on well for second but never looked like troubling the winner. He was still 1.10 lengths behind at the post with Flying Winger another 1.65 lengths back in third and Roy’s Had Enough fourth, beaten five lengths.
Callan Murray rode a great race on the favourite, managing to get him perfectly placed on the fence, despite a wide draw.
De Kock remains uncertain where to go next with Soqrat but there are a few options. “We’ll enter him in the Charity Mile and see what weight they give him. We could look at the Victory Moon and even the Summer Cup.
“The other option is to take him down to Cape Town and run him in the Green Point Stakes. The Queen’s Plate is his main mission and then possibly the Sun Met.”
The good news is that as Soqrat was the best-weighted runner, even though he was allotted 62kg, he is not going to get a penalty for this win.
Neither will second-placed Like A Panther who De Kock says has been putting up some excellent work at home in blinkers. He will pick up a big race soon.
The disappointment was Barahin who was never in the hunt but managed to finish fifth, beaten 5.15 lengths. “Ideally, we probably need to geld him but that’s up to the owner.”
De Kock was also delighted with the performance of Queen Supreme who won her third race from four starts, easily beating Aurelia Cotta by two lengths. As she was sired in Ireland, this daughter of Exceed And Excel is six months younger than her South African counterparts and is fast looking a very decent filly.
“I think we will aim her at a graded race soon, probably the Yellowwood Handicap. I think she will see out the 1800m,’’ De Kock said. Crystal Ocean, Enable and Waldgeist top the latest Longines World’s Best Racehorse Rankings with all three having achieved a rating of 128.
Waldgeist famously denied Enable a historic third victory in the Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe just over a week ago, which led to the change at the top of the eighth edition of the rankings for 2019.
In the final metres of the Arc, Waldgeist passed Enable and posted a 1.75 length victory over her to improve his rating from 124 to 128. Sottsass finished in third, improving his rating from 120 to 123.
Waldgeist and Enable are now tied at the top of the rankings, along with Crystal Ocean, who won the Prince of Wales’s Stakes (Group 1) before finishing second by a neck to Enable in the King George VI And Queen Elizabeth QIPCO Stakes (Group 1) in July. Waldgeist finished third in both of those races before winning the Qatar Prix Foy (Group 2) and the Arc.
In Hong Kong, champion Beauty Generation impressed in his return to the races by taking the Celebration Cup (Group 3), improving his rating from 125 to 127.
Meanwhile, Benbatl (125) made his first start in 335 days a winning one by taking the Shadwell Joel Stakes (Group 2) by five lengths.
Benbatl was last seen finishing second behind Winx, the 2018 co-LONGINES World’s Best Racehorse, in last year’s Ladbrokes Cox Plate (Group 1).
Additionally, in the United States, Code Of Honor improved his rating from 120 to 121 after winning the Jockey Club Gold Cup Stakes (Group 1) via disqualification over the newly ranked Vino Rosso (121).
Also, Omaha Beach (120) is now ranked after defeating Shancelot (120) by a head in the Santa Anita Sprint Championship Stakes (Group 1).
South Africa’s Do It Again maintains his rating of 120, placing him in joint 24th spot on the list.
Frankie Dettori tops the jockey rankings with 90 points, followed by Zac Purton (88), Hugh Bowman (86), Ryan Moore (78) and Joao Moreira (54).
The Longines Rankings are compiled by the Longines World’s Best Racehorse Rankings Committee and published by the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities (IFHA).