Anton Marcus, as possibly the country’s most sought after jockey, surprisingly has only two rides in the jackpot of Gr 1s at Scottsville on Saturday.
One of them is aboard the always vaunted Joey Ramsden-trained five-year-old entire Red Ray, who makes his comeback from a 16-month layoff in the Gr 1 Tsogo Sun Sprint, a race he finished second in two years ago.
Marcus looks to have a top ride in the Gr 1 Tsogo Sun Gold Medallion aboard the Vaughan Marshall-trained colt Always In Charge.
Red Ray (Liesl King)
Red Ray made the long sojourn via Mauritius and England to Dubai after his runner up finish at Scottsville in 2014 but only ended up having one run overseas, finishing a 6,25 length seventh in the Gr 2 Al Fahidi Fort over 1400m on the turf, despite starting 2/1 favourite.
Marcus said about Red Ray’s well-being at Summerveld, “He is doing fairly well and I am looking forward to riding him.”
Markus Jooste’s racing manager Derek Brugman elaborated and said due to previous soundness issues they had not pushed Red Ray to the limit in training, so could only have him about 80% fit. He added, “We would have preferred to have a run under the belt.” However, he said the Western Winter entire was as fit as they could have him under the circumstances, as well as sound, and connections were hoping for a good run. He runs off the identical merit rating of 108 he had in the race as a three-year-old and carries 56kg from a middle draw of eight.
The Captain Al colt Always In Charge, who like Red Ray is owned by Markus and Ingrid Jooste, lived up to his name in his second start over 1200m at Kenilworth on April 23. He was cruising at the head of affairs until the business end where he pulled away impressively to win by 3,25 lengths under MJ Byleveld. Anthony Delpech, who rides the Dean Kannemeyer-trained Paperback Writer in Saturday’s race, confirmed he had been impressed by Always In Charge, having been on the runner up that day, Cock-A-Hoop. Kannemeyer only mentioned Always In Charge when talking about the horses to beat in the Gold Medallion.
Marcus confirmed, “He is a nice horse.”
Marshall has a fine record in Scottsville’s two-year-old Gr 1s and last won the Gold Medallion in 2009 with Var colt Villandry.
Marcus has a prolific recent record in the Gold Medallion, winning it with Seventh Rock in 2007, Warm White Night in 2008, Delago Deluxe in 2011, Guiness in 2014 and Seventh Plain last year. All of them were owned by Jooste.
By David Thiselton
