Derby date for Guineas rivals
TAP O’NOTH and White River, separated by only half a length in Saturday’s Forus Cape Guineas, will have a rematch in the Investec Cape Derby on Met day. And it’s quite possible that third-placed Like A Panther, who has already won over ten furlongs, will throw down the gauntlet to both of them.
Saturday’s Kenilworth Grade 1 triumph was as much a vindication of Vaughan Marshall’s judgement as of his training skills because he predicted that this could be Guineas winner number five when the Captain Al colt made a winning debut eight months earlier.
Marshall said: “He is a very good horse and he has done everything we asked him to do.
“It would be unfair to any of them to compare him with my previous Guineas winners but he is up there with them.”
The Milnerton trainer was quick to rule out suggestions of a possible Queen’s Plate challenge, saying: “Slowly, slowly. We will go for the Derby next.”
Foster
The Captain Al colt started 4-1 favourite and is the third Grade 1 winner bred by Alec and Gillian Foster. He is also the third Guineas winner for MJ Byleveld whose armraised victory salute revealed some of the pressure he had been under to get it right from that dreadful draw.
He got across alright but he was only able to slot in with more than half the field in front of him.
“It wasn’t easy and I would like to have been a bit closer,” he admitted.
“In the straight it opened up and when I asked him he turned it on a bit too quickly. As a result I might have been in front a little too early but he stayed on like a good horse.”
White River wore ear muffs but no muzzle and indeed there was no repeat of the attempted opposition-biting of the Selangor and Greg Cheyne said: “He is still a bit immature and mentally he is still not quite there either but he has huge potential.”
Brett Crawford added: “He is a Derby horse. He is still a big baby, though, and still learning.”
Interestingly Anton Marcus expressed similar sentiments about Like A Panther, saying: “The penny hasn’t quite dropped yet but it will and I thought this was a good run. He is a staying type.” The disappointment of the race was Do It Again who was backed from 8-1 to 5-1 second favourite but lost ground at the start and managed only ninth. Justin Snaith, although delighted with fourthplaced Cot Campbell, shouldered the blame.
Do It Again
“I debated whether to give Do It Again another gallop beforehand. I decided to do so and I shouldn’t have. This was a flat run.”
Pack Leader, sixth and only beaten two and a half lengths, was unlucky not to finish significantly closer because he was hampered on three separate occasions in the straight.
Bold Respect (12th) dropped right back in the closing stages but suspicions that this could be more than just lack of stamina could not be confirmed by the vet who reported that nothing showed up.
Undercover Agent (tenth) and Sir Frenchie (last) were both reported unusually fatigued.