Joey Soma runs the Eyeofthetiger gelding Savage Wind in Saturday’s Gr 1 eLan Property Group Gold Cup over 3200m and expects him to find the frame.

Talking about the pace of the race, Soma reckoned the topweights would not get home in a fast race and those that wanted a true test would not want it slow. He added Savage Wind was one of the few horses who would be happy with any pace. In the past he had sometimes had the tendency to pull, but appears to be over it as he  settled well in a very slow paced race in his last start when a narrow 0,2 length third in the Gr 2 Track And Ball Derby over 2400m at Scottsville.

Soma said, “He is a nice consistent horse over this distance and is getting stronger and stronger the older he gets.”

Savage Wind is better off at the weights with all the horses that finished around him in the Track and Ball Derby, Disco Al, Hot Ticket and Kingston Mines, yet at 16/1 with Betting World is longer priced than any of them. However, Soma admitted the pace in that race had been false.

He concluded, “He is the type of horse that could finish second in a maiden or second in the Gold Cup.”

The promising young apprentice Callan Murray rides from a wide draw of 15 and Soma said, “He knows him well as he works him every day. He will play it by ear and just allow him to do his own thing.”

Soma also runs the former Gr 1 SA Fillies Classic winner Athina in the Gr 2 Gold Bracelet over 2000m and said, “She has been very disappointing in her last two races, especially in her last one (tailed off last in the Gr 3 Cup Trial over 1800m). I have discussed it with the connections and it is likely that if she runs another bad race she will be retired to stud but otherwise she might race for another season. We couldn’t find much to explain those last two races, although she was a bit above herself on the day of the Cup Trial.

“I have freshened her up and she has been working very well, so we hope she can show some of her old brilliance. There is not much between her and Jet Belle on the form of the Summer Cup and the Paddock Stakes. She has pole position draw and she does get on well with Piere Strydom (rode her to a narrow and unlucky second in the Gr 1 Maine Chance Farms Paddock Stakes over 1800m as well as a narrow second in the Gr 2 Jo’burg Spring Fillies and Mares Challenge over 1450m).”

David Thiselton