Michael Clower

GLEN KOTZEN has decided to have no runners for the next fortnight after a mysterious and undetectable virus forced him to scratch all his 12 horses at Kenilworth on Wednesday.

“The horses ran so badly at the last meeting (he ran 11 – only one made the frame, four finished last and another four were second last) that I have decided to pull the plug. I will give them all 14 days off and have no runners during that period. Once they start freshening up again we will start nominating.

“It’s a respiratory infection but it shows nothing and there are no symptoms. The horses look good, they work well, eat up and don’t cough. But when they get to the 400m mark, and the jockey starts asking them, they stop as if they had been shot.

“Last Saturday’s runners looked fine beforehand, we lung-washed them and the bloods were good to go yet they ran badly. The quickest way to get rid of something like this is not to run anything.”

It has been a tough week for the Woodhill trainer. On Monday he was fined R35 000 as a urine sample taken from Herodotus, after winning a race at Kenilworth over two years ago, was found to contain traces of a human painkiller. Seemingly this came from the urine of one of the stable staff.

But Kotzen, typically, is looking beyond this week’s bad news, reasoning that the Cape season is only just getting into gear and that his present patient approach can pay big dividends in the next three months.

It was 4.45am on Wednesday when Eric Sands found out that he was in trouble. “Rainbow Bridge had traces of urticaria on his neck and cheek. It’s an allergy, like somebody coming out in a rash, and it can happen in a few minutes. By the time I checked out the rest of the string it had gone down his shoulder.

“I wasn’t going to wait until it covered his whole body. I had to give him treatment and I couldn’t run him after doing that.’

Obviously the treatment would show up in any post-race dope test and the horse would be disqualified. Not treating him, and letting him run, was not an option either. “True, he might have won by six lengths but he was 5-10 and, if he was beaten, what would that have done for the public, the horse and myself? Running him would have been absolute stupidity and I certainly wasn’t going to risk it.”

Last year’s Met winner will now start off in the Green Point on December 12 and unfortunately his second run back, the one where he tends to run a bit flat, will be the L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate on 9 January.

They say they never come back but Captain Of Stealth, struck down by serious injury after looking a star of the future last season, put up a truly eye-catching performance in today’s Tabonline.co.za Pinnacle.

True, the race took a lot less winning without Rainbow Bridge but Sean Veale’s mount pulled his way to the front early and looked as if he might just hold on a furlong out. At the line he only went down by three-quarters of a length to the fellow Vaughan Marshall-trained Silver Operator in the Mario Ferreira colours and, if he stays sound, his day will surely come.

“I was very happy with Captain Of Stealth,” said Marshall, “and I think we will look at the Green Point with Silver Operator.”

African Night Sky, running for the first time since the 2018 Durban July, finished last but Justin Snaith was far from disheartened, saying: “He was very keen, too above himself and too excited – but he had only had the one grass gallop in all the time he has been off.”

A panel discussion focussing on Saturday’s World Sports Betting Gauteng Summer Cup at Turffontein will be broadcast on Tellytrack at 19:45 this evening.

The panel comprises commentator and host Alistair Cohen and trainers Sean Tarry, Alec Laird and Paul Peter, who will saddle unbeaten four-year-old filly Summer Pudding and stablemates Astrix and Riverstown in the Cup.

The show will be broadcast again tomorrow night after the last race at Chelmsford City at 21:00.

David Thiselton

ALEC LAIRD said Pack Leader had come through his two WSB Summer Cup preparation runs well but believed he would have to “run the race of his life” to win the big 2000m event at Turffontein Standside on Saturday.

Pack Leader was not given any merit rating raise after his 4,50 length win in a Progress Plate over 1600m last time out.

He won that race effortlessly despite the lead rein having mistakenly been left attached to his bridle and lashing around in front of him before S’Manga Khumalo managed to gather it up around the turn.

The six-year-old Philanthropist gelding seems to have blossomed since joining Laird’s Randjesfontein yard.

Laird said a change could be as good as a holiday and added he was also suited to the tracks on the Highveld before pointing out he had been just as good a horse with Glen Kotzen.

“Those last two runs were quite easy races and he has not had the chance to run in such plate races for quite a while.”

Pack Leader’s seventh place finish in the Sun Met, beaten 6,70 lengths on weight for age terms, proves Laird’s point.

In that race he had One World, Rainbow Bridge, Hawwaam, Twist Of Fate, Bunker Hunt, and Vardy ahead of him and among the horses he beat were Undercover Agent and Do It Again. He had also beaten Undercover Agent and Do It Again in the Green Point Stakes about seven weeks earlier.

He now runs off a 109, which ranges from 13 to 25 points lower than the respective merit ratings of the aforementioned horses he mixed it with in the Met.  

On the other hand he ran disappointingly in a number of lesser races last season and hence the seven point drop in his merit rating from the 116 it was at the time of the Met.

However, one of his most eyecatching runs last season was in the Cup Trial at Scottsville over 1800m when running on strongly from last to finish fourth. 

That run and his Met run, when coming from near the back, gave indicators that he would appreciate the galloping nature and long straights of Highveld courses like Turffontein Standside and the Vaal. And so it has proved.

He is enjoying himself on the Highveld too, so looks set to reproduce that Met run. 

One possible detractor is he has the daisy-cutting type of action that is usually best suited to fast ground.

Therefore, Laird was asked if he foresaw any problems Pack Leader would have handling soft going. 

He said, “We don’t work them on soft going so it is always difficult to tell. I think if there is just a bit of cut in the ground he should be fine although if it turns out heavy it will be difficult for any horse unless he or she is a mudlark.”    

There is rain forecast most days this week in Johannesburg so the going is likely to be on the soft side. 

Pack Leader jumps from a plum draw of four and has a nice galloping weight of 54,5kg with S’Manga Khumalo in the irons.  

Laird won the Summer Cup in 2006 with the Rakeen colt Malteme, who converted 14/1 odds carrying 51kg under Brett Smith. 

Khumalo has also won it one once, aboard the Joey Soma-trained Wagner, who converted odds of 16/1 in 2012 carrying 52.5kg.

David Thiselton

PIERE STRYDOM is the winning-most Summer Cup rider to be taking part in Saturday’s big race, having been in the winner’s enclosure of Johannesburg’s flagship event four times, and he will need to cause an upset to increase his tally as he is aboard the 25-1 chance Astrix.

Strydom has never ridden the Paul Peter-trained four-year-old Vercingetorix gelding but has spoken to his regular rider Warren Kennedy. The latter confirmed there was a bit of a concern he would stay the tough 2000m trip. 

Vercingetorix is appearing to impart more speed and less stamina in his progeny than his prolific sire Silvano does. However, Astrix’s damsire Victory Moon, who won a Grade 3 and a Grade 2 over 2000m and was an unlucky fifth in the Group 1 Eclipse Stakes over 2007m, provides some hope he will stay. On the other hand Astrix’s dam Victory Dance is a half-sister to the dual Grade 1 winner Thunder Dance (Jet Master), who was essentially a miler. Furthermore, his second dam Shadow Dancing is a half-sister to the speed influence Captain Al. 

However, the point that does give hope is that both Astrix’s attempts at 1800m to date did not pan out well. He was caught wide throughout in the Grade 1 SA Classic from draw 16 so was entitled to find no extra in the straight, finishing a 4,85 length tenth. In the Victory Moon Stakes last time out he had to do some work to overcome another wide draw. Yet he stayed on well for a 2,50 length second. He now has a good draw of three so should find cover and this will give him a chance of staying.

Strydom said he would have to give Astrix a chance due to the stamina doubt. He said the detractor in this case was the big field, as he might then end up too far back.

He concluded, “I don’t know the horse but it is an open race and if he stays he must have a chance.”

Astrix is 2,5kg better off with Christopher Robin for a 2,50 length beating in the Victory Moon so on paper should finish alongside that one, although the latter has no stamina concerns. 

Strydom’s four Summer Cup wins have been with Roland’s Song in 1990, Eventuail in 2002, Tyson in 2004 and Louis The King in 2014. 

Strydom intends retiring at the end of this season.

However, this depends on two things. Firstly, he wants to reach 5500 career winners. He should pass this mark before July 31 next year as he currently has only 29 winners to go.

He will also insist upon going out with a winner. If his last ride of the season is not a winner he will be back for another meeting next season.

He said, “I hope COVID-19 is over by then because after I have ridden that last winner I am going to throw my boots into the stands!”

An ambition before bowing out is to win the Vodacom Durban July next year and thus join Anton Marcus on a record five wins of the country’s premier horseracing event.

Five Summer Cup wins and five July’s will fit nicely as he will be the ripe age of 55 upon retiring.    

Michael Clower

RAINBOW BRIDGE, winner of the 2019 Sun Met and a string of other big races including the Champions Cup and the Gold Challenge, makes his eagerly-awaited reappearance in the Tabonline.co.za Pinnacle Stakes over 1 400m at Kenilworth today when rising star Luke Ferraris  will ride him in public for the first time.

The six-year-old opened a prohibitive 3-10 when World Sports Betting opened its book (on adjusted ratings he has the proverbial stone in hand). But there will be almost as much interest in African Night Sky who runs for the first time since his controversial run in the 2018 Vodacom Durban July.

“Rainbow Bridge has been doing pretty well but he is nowhere near fit yet,” said Eric Sands this morning. Sands is already eyeing the Green Point Stakes at the Cape Town course on December 12. “My aim is the L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate (Jan 9) and the Met three weeks later. I want the Queen’s Plate to be his third run back and the Met his fourth of the campaign because his second run of the season can be a little bit flat even though he always runs well in it. Luke rode the horse in a spin on Saturday and did so again this morning.”

Stable companion and half-brother Golden Ducat will return at Kenilworth on December 2. “We had a little hiccup with him so he is not as fit as he might be. He will gallop this week and will come back in a progress plate, either over a mile or over 1 200m.”

African Night Sky started a warm favourite for the 2018 July but the slow gallop proved fatal. He fought for his head and for rider Grant van Niekerk the race turned into a living nightmare. In a last, despairing throw of the dice he decided to give the horse his head and let him go. Not surprisingly his mount tired before the end and finished a bitterly expensive fifth. “They went slower and slower but I thought that if I went on the horse would settle,” Van Niekerk explained afterwards.

The jockey was widely, and unfairly, criticised by the riders in the stands – his mount’s defeat was guaranteed once he started fighting his jockey – and significantly this season’s leading Cape Town rider is back on him on Wednesday.

Owner Fred Crabbia transferred the horse from Justin Snaith to Dean Kannemeyer, possibly to race in Dubai, but he damaged a tendon and couldn’t go. He was returned to Snaith last December.

“Obviously he hasn’t raced for a long time but everything has gone well and I’m looking for a nice positive run,” said Justin today.

He also runs Wild Coast on whom Richard Fourie will be hoping to celebrate Wednesday’s 35^th birthday in appropriate style. “It’s a strong field but Wild Coast has been doing well at home and we are looking for a good run to give us confidence for the future, “ said the trainer.

Vaughan Marshall is also double-handed with Silver Operator and Captain Of Stealth who looked a future star when winning his first two races last season by an aggregate of almost 12 lengths. Then disaster struck. In a freak accident he wrapped himself below the joint and just above the coronet. Many thought he would never race again but Vaughan Marshall predicted ten months off.

He has had two runs this season and Marshall said today: ”He is just about back to his best but it hasn’t been plain sailing and he has had a lot of little minor issues including bouts of urticaria.”

The trainer probably has a better chance with his other runner Silver Operator, the mount of four-time champion Anton Marcus – “He has done very well and I am very happy with him.”

The Paul Reeves-trained Photocopy completes the line-up but he is the rank outsider.

Latest betting: 3-10 Rainbow Bridge, 8-1 Wild Coast, 17-2 Silver Operator, 15-1 African Night Sky, 18-1 Captain Of Stealth, 20-1 Photocopy.