More De Kock magic on the cards
HE great trainer Terrance Millard earned the nickname “Maciver” for his incredible exploits on the track and now we have “Mike the Magician”, the trainer that has taken the racing world by storm, taking on the best with locally bred horses and beating them and giving new life - and plenty of it - to “outcasts and buy-ins” from some of the world’s biggest racing operations.
So, were we really surprised last weekend when Mike de Kock came within a whisker of making a clean sweep of the five feature events on Guineas Day at Turffontein? Not at all!
With the exception of the Acacia Handicap where Europoint looked a blinder and duly obliged, the Hawaii stakes included some top horses yet Kavanagh won like a good thing. In the Betting World Gauteng Fillies Guineas, others were fancied ahead of Ilha Bella and she was beaten a whisker.
The Betting World Gauteng Guineas saw a number of runners strongly fancied but along come outsider Golden Chateau to spoil the party and in the Aquanaut Handicap Atyeb made it four from five for the De Kock stable.
That was another display of the De Kock team dominance of racing and that well-oiled machine can give
Tpunters a banker for the exotics at Turffontein tomorrow with the National Assembly colt Soft Falling Rain. In the hands of Tshwaro Appie, the colt has won both his starts with ease and will be a very shortpriced favourite to win the Listed Storm Bird Stakes for two-year-olds over 1 000m.
The Listed Ruffian Stakes, the juvenile race for fillies over 1 000m, is not quite as easy although the Leon Erasmus-trained Que Bonita and Size Does Count from the Weiho Marwing yard look the best of those that have raced. However, half the field are first-timers including the Trippi filly Franny owned by Bridgett Oppenheimer and trained by Gavin van Zyl.
Trippi
Trippi is all the rage as a first-season sire in this country and is already producing winners. Although official betting was not available at the time of writing, forecasts are that Franny is likely to be on offer at short odds. Fortunately, for the Pick 6, unraced horses are “free” so if she does win the first “raced” horse home will also count in that exotic bet.
It could be a very good day for punters in the exotics as another potential banker lurks among the 12 runners in the non-black type Var Gold Rush Sprint in the form of Skitt Skizzle from the Sean Tarry stable. This Jet Master colt made his appearance at the Vaal a week or so back and the word was obviously out that he could run. After starting at odds of 1520, he cruised home by 10 lengths.
So he could be a little special and we will find out tomorrow just how special he is. The likes of Midnight Serenade and Second Tycoon are likely to test his credentials along with Legal Action and Dazzling Moon so this could be a nice race.
The non-black type Egoli Mile for three-year-olds over 1 600m is the final feature on the Turffontein card and it looks an open event.
Tarry
Tarry holds a strong hand with three runners including the likely favourite Heavy Metal who finished fourth in the Betting World Gauteng Guineas a week ago. This race might come a bit soon after that event but he is obviously a decent sort and should run well again.
His danger could be the Tiger Ridge gelding Royal Ridge from the De Kock stable that finished 1,25 lengths behind him when they last met a month ago.
Royal Ridge is 1kg better off in the weights tomorrow but he will also have to contend with the two other Tarry runners Perigrine and Dark Knight as well as the Greys Inn gelding Royal Bencher from the Alec Laird yard.
With the possibility of bankers earlier in the day, punters would be wise to include a few in this leg of the exotics where Carnaby Street and Glorious Jet should also be considered.