Impressive win sets Head Honcho for Met
AMAZINGLY the big bookmakers have chosen to ignore the way Head Honcho staked his Sun Met claims with that eye-catching performance in last Saturday’s WSB Premier Trophy and both Betting World and World Sports Betting have left him unchanged on 33-1.
Admittedly their 5-1 a place is a bit stingy – that price should be nearer 8-1 – but the Andre Nel candidate won pretty much as he liked.
Keagan de Melo sent him on a furlong and a half from home and the gelding strode clear to beat Made To Conquer three and a half lengths which might well have been five had his rider really asked the question.
Yet the runner-up, who will be a kilo worse in the Met, is on 25-1.
Eyes Wide Open
Eyes Wide Open, beaten nearly four lengths, and Tap O’Noth (two lengths further back sixth) will only be half a kilo better yet they are both 16-1 with Betting World.
Some papers have suggested that their riders were caught napping but that wasn’t how it looked to this observer and, don’t forget, Head Honcho has been improving like few others.
This was his sixth win in his last seven starts and Andre Nel, recording his first Grade 2 success, reckons there is more to come, saying: “This 1 800m is a touch short for him yet the way he did it, and the way he won, was impressive.
“Now I can start training him for the Met.”
The layers are presumably influenced by the official handicap ratings which have Head Honcho three kilos behind 5-2 favourite Rainbow Bridge and eight behind 28-10 shot Do It Again but the handicappers seem sure to raise the five-year-old when they review matters today.
Soqrat
Soqrat will attempt to become only the second three-year-old to win the L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate since In Full Flight and Yatahgan did it in successive seasons nearly half a century ago.
The Australian-bred’s success on Saturday gave Mike de Kock Cape Guineas winner number five and enabled him to overtake the legendary Terrance Millard’s 117 Grade 1-winning record but, remarkably, stable jockey Randall Simons had never before ridden a winner in Cape Town.
The 32-year-old hadn’t expected to win this either.
“I thought I would be under pressure behind Anton Marcus but not a bit of it,” he related.
“I was always going well and I wasn’t worried when Twist Of Fate went clear.”
Bernard Fayd’Herbe (in fine form with a treble) made a bold attempt to skip the field on Twist Of Fate, kicking three lengths clear early in the straight and beating all except the winner.
“I thought it was a great ride,” said Joey Ramsden, paying tribute to his jockey’s opportunism.
Ramsden has an open mind about what comes next but the Queen’s Plate looks unlikely even though, according to racecourse reports, only seven horses were entered at last Friday’s closing.
Hence the decision to extend the deadline until this morning.
Fearless Warrior
It wasn’t Vaughan Marshall’s day despite winning the first with newcomer Fearless Warrior who won’t be aimed at the Listed race on Met day – the trainer has others in mind for that.
He had four beaten favourites, most notably One World who lost his unbeaten record in the big one.
“He had every chance,” said Marshall. Anton Marcus concurred, saying: “I thought he was beaten fair and square. He never travels that well but it wasn’t a bad run at all.
“You want to look at Chimichuri Run and see where he finished (sixth).
“He was only half a length behind us in the Concorde Cup.”