The Glen Kotzen-trained Trippi colt Gold Standard, now the highest merit rated three-year-old in the country, will be campaigned in the SA Champions Season in KZN.

Gold Standard (Liesl King)

Meanwhile, the route which Investec Cape Derby winner Edict Of Nantes takes is still up in the air.

Gold Standard has been accorded a merit rating of 115 by the handicappers after finishing fourth in Saturday’s Gr 1 R5 million The Sun Met and Kotzen said this would likely rule him out of the running in the Vodacom Durban July.

Kotzen’s concern is the merit ratings of the other three-year-olds in the country. He pointed out the horse which had beaten Gold Standard fair and square in the Gr 1 Grand Parade Cape Guineas, William Longsword, was only merit rated 109, although he did recognise The Met itself had likely been correctly assessed.

Gold Standard’s chief targets will be the R600,000 Gr 2 Daisy Guineas and the R2 million Gr 1 Daily News 2000.

Kotzen was “very happy” with Gold Standard’s Met run and believed he could well have finished third had he not been interfered with by third-placed Captain America. He pointed out he was carried out eight horse widths and then had to be eased when squeezed between Captain America and the faster finishing Legal Eagle. The official margin between Captain America and Gold Standard was a length but Kotzen said it would have been impossible for a big horse like him to recover in time when having his stride broken at the most crucial stage. “But it’s history,” he added, as he looked forward to the future for the classy colt.

Glen Kotzen

Kotzen will be targeting the Gr 2 Daisy Fillies Guineas with Judpot filly Final Judgement, who was the first three-year-old home in the Gr 1 Klawervlei Majorca Stakes over 1600m.

The yard’s promising two-year-old Horse Chestnut filly Gold Image will also be going to KZN. Kotzen said, “She was beaten by two big, strapping colts (when third in Saturday’s R1 million Kuda Sprint) and I liked the way she finished her race. She will be a nice filly in a couple of months’ time and will be aimed at the Allan Robertson.”

Mayfair Speculators’ racing manager Derek Brugman said it had not yet been finalised whether the Brett Crawford-trained Edict Of Nantes would be kept back in Cape Town for the Winter Series or be campaigned in the SA Champions Season. It had also not yet been decided, if staying in Cape Town, whether he would raid for The July. The Count Du Bois colt has been accorded a merit rating of 102.

By David Thiselton