For Anthony Andrews it was his finest hour but for all those who backed Carry On Alice down to 9-10 favouritism Saturday’s Sceptre Stakes was an unmitigated – and expensive – disaster.

The talented favourite saw no need whatsoever for S’Manga Khumalo’s call for early restraint and fought for her head, burning up so much energy that she didn’t have enough in the tank when her rider said go.

This was two furlongs out when Andrews also elected to press the button but from a position several lengths in front of her. Khumalo made up all bar a length and a half but it was only enough for fifth place, worth a mere R10 000. Andrews won R250 000 for his grateful employers.

Princess Royal & jockey Anthony Andrews (Liesl King)

A visibly upset Khumalo refused to answer press questions but Sean Tarry said: “She missed the break, got crossed and her head was in the air for 200m – and it was very hard to come from so far back.”

By this stage, though, Andrews was on the winner’s podium basking in adulation. “He puts in a lot of work and he is a young kid who is on the way up,” enthused Glen Kotzen.

Not so much of a kid. Andrews is 27 but everybody thinks he is a lot younger because he started late. But he has a better pedigree than most of his rivals. His sire rode at the Cheltenham Festival and won the South African Champion Hurdle while his dam was the racing correspondent of the Cape Times. What more could you ask for!

Mind you, his Sceptre-winning partner Princess Royal is also bred in the purple – a half-sister by Captain Al to Princess Victoria – and this win vindicated both Kotzen’s belief in her and his perseverance with a filly who is apparently a bit of a madam.

Kotzen, seemingly impervious to the ire of the whole feminist movement, declared: “She is a typical lady – she can throw her toys out of the pram now and again. But I always said that she has loads of talent. It’s just a matter of getting it out of her.”

Andrews preferred to concentrate on thanking the injured man whose advice played a big part in his first Grade 2 winner, saying: “Greg Cheyne told me exactly how to ride her. He said that, if she started to find her feet, I should go with her rather than holding her up – and that’s what I did.”

Plans for Princess Royal are fluid but the Dennis Drier-trained Gathering Fame, who repeated last year’s win in the Claremart Auction Group Jamaica Handicap under a confident Aldo Domeyer, will skip the rest of the Cape season to return to Durban.

By Michael Clower 

Dual Grade 1 winner Seventh Plain is reported in great shape for Saturday’s CTS Million Dollar but he has been hammered with a nightmare draw – 19 out of 20 – and over the Kenilworth 1 400m that is a huge handicap. Four inside him will come out to leave a field of 16 but even so Anton Marcus’s legendary starting skills face meeting their Waterloo.

Dennis Drier said: “Seventh Plain might have a little stride-along on the course on Wednesday but he is spot-on and it will be his third run after a rest – although I don’t believe in that theory.

“I thought he put up a hell of a good performance in the Sophomore. It’s hard to give up-and-coming three-year-olds the weight that he did. It’s a pity about the draw but we do have the right jockey for it.”

Seventh Plain wore a tongue tie for the first time in the Sophomore and will do so again on Saturday, with Drier explaining: “I saw him with his tongue out two races back so, rather being safe than sorry, I put one on and he enjoyed it.”

Silver Mountain, on paper the one they all have to beat, galloped at Kenilworth over 1 400m before her runaway Cape Fillies Guineas win but at Kenilworth last Wednesday Mike Bass only put her over 1 000m.

Candice Robinson explained: “She doesn’t need a lot of work. Aldo Domeyer rode her and she went with Rodney (second reserve in the CTS). I think it’s going to be a rough race with everybody jostling for position. It’s up to Aldo now but we will need a bit of luck.”

With nearly R16.8 million up for grabs for the first five and the winner taking half, it’s not hard to see some of the jockeys throwing normal caution and respect for each other to the four winds.

But Seventh Plain is not the only strong contender to collect a bad draw. Gavin van Zyl’s Redcarpet Captain is drawn only one better at 18 and Cape Guineas fifth Victorious Jay just two places inside him.

Abashiri, joint highest-rated of the 18 declared for the Investec Cape Derby, was ruled out by Mike Azzie after outclassing the opposition in Saturday’s Sea Cottage Stakes – scoring by two and a half lengths even though he drifted halfway across the course in the final furlong.

Azzie said: “This is the best I have trained since National Currency but taking him to the Cape after this would be a bad move due to his poor draw (16). We will let Rabada fight for us there and keep this boy at home for the Triple Crown.”

Justin Snaith, dubious about letting Politician winner Black Arthur take his chance, is now totally positive and said: “Black Arthur came out of the race really well and he is a definite runner.”

By Michael Clower

Photo (Nkosi Hlophe): Seventh Plain

French Navy, 15-1 for the J & B Met, looks most unlikely to be included when the final field is announced today despite powering home under top weight in the London News Stakes at Turffontein on Saturday.

Sean Tarry said: “It’s doubtful. There is a R4 million race (President’s Champions Challenge) in Johannesburg in April and that will be his target. He may have a race or two before that.”

The champion trainer added that Legal Eagle has come out of his Queen’s Plate win very well. The four-year-old is 11-10 favourite for Saturday week’s highlight, having touched evens during last week.

Bouclette Top, No Worries, Forest Indigo and Marmalade Tycoon have all been scratched and Vodacom Durban July winner Power King will join their number after being retired.

Dean Kannemeyer said yesterday: “We have decided to call it a day. He has not been easy to train but he is such a courageous little horse, done everything we have asked and given us a tremendous amount of pleasure. Lady Christine Laidlaw has the most wonderful stables on the slopes of the mountain and he will spend the rest of his days there with his old mate Cape Royal.”

Captain America, 16-1 to give Brett Crawford his second successive win and his third in all, has pulled up well from his Queen’s Plate fourth.

Crawford said: “He will run in the Met and he will definitely get the trip. He is much more relaxed these days.”

Last year’s Cape Guineas winner Act Of War, who weakened into sixth in the closing stages of the Queen’s Plate, has been supplemented for the Betting World Cape Flying Championship on the same card. However Joey Ramsden said a definite decision on running him has still to be taken. Stable companion Brutal Force is high on the 23-strong initial entry list.

The Secret Is Out, so impressive on debut last Wednesday, could be doubtful for the Summer Juvenile Stakes.

Vaughan Marshall said: “She pulled up a bit shinny. I will wait until later in the week before deciding but we may give it a miss. I would have taken my chances otherwise.”

By Michael Clower

Photo (JC Photo): French Navy

Abashiri, the joint top-rated runner in Saturday’s Investec Cape Derby (Grade 1) over 2000m at Kenilworth, looks unlikely to take part.

Abashiri won Saturday’s Sea Cottage Stakes at Turffontein and trainer Mike Azzie suggested in the post-race interview that the Go Deputy gelding would be held back for the Triple Crown races in Johannesburg instead of travelling to the Cape this week, citing his bad No 16 draw as the primary reason.

The Cape Derby is one of three rich feature races on the Investec Day Of Dreams at which the inaugural Million Dollar and the Klawervlei Majorca Stakes will also be run.

Azzie will not be empty-handed in the Cape’s premier classic. He will saddle joint top-rated Rabada, winner of the Grade 1 Premier’s Champion Stakes at Greyville last season but without a win in two starts this term. Rabada is not optimally drawn at No 13 but a double-digit draw is not considered that important over this trip.

Brazuca, from the Johan Janse van Vuuren yard, is the other top-rated runner in the field. He is well drawn at No 1 and will be trying further than 1600m for the first time. He finished second to Noah From Goa, considered by many to be the best three-year-old seen out so far this season, in the Cape Guineas and will have quite a few supporters.

Rabada and Brazuca are rated 10 points or five lengths superior to Eighth Wonder, the next best-rated runner in the 16-horse field but there is every chance a few of the horses are underrated at this early stage of their three-year-old campaigns.

One of those could be Black Arthur, who rose to the occasion when beating Marinaresco in the Politician Stakes over 1800m, one of the trials for the Cape Derby. He is trained by Justin Snaith, who has three other runners, two-time winner Star Chestnut, It’s My Turn and Prince Of Wales.

Same Jurisdiction, only fourth when starting favourite from a wide draw in last Saturday’s Maine Chance Farms Paddock Stakes, has struck lucky this time. The Duncan Howells-trained filly is the highest-rated horse in the Grade 1 Majorca Stakes and will jump from draw No 2. She is rated 3.5kg better than anything else in the race, the next highest being last year’s winner Inara, and could well be hard to beat.

Entisaar, second to Silver Mountain in the Choice Carriers Championship (Grade 2), will represent Mike de Kock and is one of only three three-year-olds in the race.

Final field and draws for the Investec Cape Derby over 2000m at Kenilworth:

16 Abashiri  60 109 A G Lerena Mike Azzie
2 1 Brazuca (AUS)  60 109 T A W Marwing Johan Janse van Vuuren
3 13 Rabada  60 109 A A Marcus Mike Azzie
4 18 Eighth Wonder  60 99 A S Randolph Greg Ennion
5 5 Black Arthur  60 96 A B Fayd’Herbe Justin Snaith
6 11 Star Chestnut  60 94 A A Delpech Justin Snaith
7 14 Liege  60 93 A S Khumalo Sean Tarry
8 7 Royal Badge  60 92 A A Domeyer Adam Marcus
9 6 Jet Air  60 90 A D Dillon Mike Bass
10 17 Marinaresco  60 90 A G van Niekerk Mike Bass
11 12 Kemal Kavur  60 89 A R Danielson Vaughan Marshall
12 3 Eastern Charm  60 88 BA M Byleveld Vaughan Marshall
13 15 It’s My Turn  60 87 A R Khathi Justin Snaith
14 2 Nebula  60 84 A C Orffer Brett Crawford
15 10 Prince Of Wales  60 84 A P Strydom Justin Snaith
16 4 One Away  60 80 BA B Lerena Brett Crawford
17 8 Paladin  60 77 BA Reserve 1 Vaughan Marshall
18 9 Mega Secret  60 76 A Reserve 2 Patrick Kruyer

Final field and draws for the Klawervlei Majorca Stakes over 1 600m at Kenilworth:
1 2 Same Jurisdiction  60 115 A A Marcus Duncan Howells
2 6 Inara  60 108 A G van Niekerk Mike Bass
3 16 Bichette  60 107 A S Khumalo Sean Tarry
4 5 Lanner Falcon  60 107 A B Fayd’Herbe Mike Bass
5 7 Alexis  60 100 A C Orffer Brett Crawford
6 9 Fear Not  60 96 A W Marwing Adam Marcus
7 1 Deputy Ryder  60 95 XA G Lerena Neil Bruss
8 15 Double Whammy  60 95 BA S Randolph Glen Kotzen
9 3 Eventual Angel  60 95 A P Strydom Dennis Drier
10 8 Crystal Cavern  60 92 BA R Danielson Adam Marcus
11 4 Sea Cat  60 91 A J P v’d Merwe Paul Reeves
12 14 Sensible Lover (AUS)  60 84 A R Khathi Darryl Hodgson
13 12 Lohnromance (AUS)  60 73 A A Domeyer Andre Nel
14 10 Entisaar (AUS)  55 103 A A Delpech Mike de Kock
15 11 Taffety Tart  55 99 A D Dillon Mike Bass
16 13 Moonlight ‘n Roses  55 93 A M Byleveld Mike Bass

– TABnews
– Picture: Same Jurisdiction (Nkosi Hlophe)

The CTS Million Dollar to be run next Saturday at Kenilworth has brought with it a fervour normally associated with the Vodacom Durban July due to the stakes money on offer, and next week’s CTS Cape Premier Yearling Sale will be busier than ever because buyers have been gripped and will be dreaming of standing in the winner’s enclosure of this innovative race in two-years-time.

Buying power is one factor in ultimate success, but the dream factor has been kept alive by the frequency in which horses with relatively low sales tags become champions.

Recent R2,5 million Lanzerac Ready To Run Stakes winner Budapest was unfashionably bred and cost just R160,000; the current highest merit-rated horse in the country Legal Eagle was dear at R425,000, but was far from being the most expensive; the four-time Gr 1-winning July victor Legislate was knocked down for a mere R100,000.

Therefore, it is apt sponsors Investec have called next Saturday’s racemeeting the Investec Day Of Dreams.

Central to Saturday’s winner will be one of the ten racehorse trainers involved. Firstly, the trainer would probably have liked what he had seen in the horse before accepting him  into his yard. He would then have readied him-or-her for possibly the most important race of his-or-her career, the debut, in which a good experience is paramount because horses have excellent long term memories. Having assessed the horse’s potential, he would then gradually have brought him-or-her on to the point where he or she was ready to take on the best of the crop, or in the case of Saturday’s race, the best of the Sales catalogue.

To the vast majority of observers, including the most experienced of them, racehorse training is a complete mystery. This is one reason a book on the market called Strictly Classified by Marten Julian could be essential reading for those wishing to buy that dream horse at next week’s Sale.

The Racing Post described the book thus: “Strictly Classified offers readers a unique insight into the workings of a horseman’s mind, notably in relation to their understanding of a racehorse’s psyche, emotions and character. Calling from his training in psychotherapy and other disciplines, Marten Julian sheds light on how those who work with horses try to unravel the innermost workings of a horse’s mind. He has asked many of the world’s top trainers and handlers how they identify and relate to a horse’s individual personality and thereby encourage it to realise its full potential.

Reference is made to how they address the potential effect of a racehorse’s formative years, their integration into a yard, their emotional range of experiences, their spirit, their will to win and their end days. This is a book specifically about horse people, how they respond to a horse’s character and psychological disposition and it is illustrated with examples of a few well-known horses with which they have been involved.

Robin Oakley wrote an excellent synopsis of this book recently in The Spectator:

Oakley said, “Do horses have souls or a ‘spirit’? When form expert Marten Julian was looking to buy a horse, he asked Declan Murphy to assess it. The former jockey watched it walk then studied its face closely before giving the thumbs-down. ‘That horse,’ he said, ‘has had its spirit broken.’ Murphy’s response led Marten to roam the world of those who work with horses to ask how they try to assess a horse’s individual personality and seek to maximise its potential. In Strictly Classified, the experts debate whether racehorses are still flight animals driven by fear, expecting the slowest to fall to a predator, or whether they have been converted by centuries of human contact, selective breeding and stable disciplines to react more to routine. The result is an anecdotal treasury which confirms that many trainers act as much on sheer instinct as on any structure of historical knowledge. The great Vincent O’Brien paid as much attention to heads and faces as he did to pedigrees. Oliver Sherwood, who trained Many Clouds to win last season’s Grand National, echoes that. ‘The first thing I look at in any horse is the eye, then the limbs and the backside — it’s like looking at a girl.’ Veterinarian and trainer Dermot Weld says, ‘The eyes and the head tell me a lot.’ But is that soul or spirit that they see?

Heartening for those of us who love the sport — and bad news for those who would ban it— is the emphasis so many trainers place on kindness. John Gosden agrees that in the old days ‘breaking’ a horse meant almost precisely that. But now, he insists, ‘The more gently you break them the better. If a horse is frightened by what it is being asked to do then it may become cautious to the point of really wanting to withdraw itself.’ Of the new wave Dan Skelton says, ‘My first job, when I am sent a horse, is to look after him and try to ensure he does not get hurt.’ The scholarly John Oxx insists, ‘The pure business of training a racehorse is to try to get that balance between how hard you work them and how happy they can be.’ For me the best definition Marten Julian drew from a trainer was Luca Cumani’s. In the TV Quiz show A Question of Sport, says Luca, ‘There was a blurred pixelated image of somebody, which they gradually brought into focus. That is how the horse comes to you. They arrive like a blur and step by step the picture clears in your mind and you discover how best to train them.’”

By David Thiselton