Trainer Candice Robinson, assistant to her father Mike Bass, has confirmed the brilliant filly Silver Mountain will likely go for the Gr 1 Grand Parade Cape Guineas on December 19 and thereby attempt to become the first filly to win this race since the David Payne-trained Little Ballerina did so in December 1993.

Silver Mountain (Kenilworth Racing)

An interesting statistic is Andrew Fortune rode Little Ballerina to victory in the Cape Guineas, while his son Aldo Domeyer is the regular pilot aboard Silver Mountain.

Other fillies to have won the Cape Guineas include the great Tony Millard-trained Empress Club (February 1992), the Geoff Woodruff-trained Star Effort (February 1991), Renounce (February 1965) and Response (February 1957). Star Effort remains the only horse in history to have won both the Cape Fillies Guineas and the Cape Guineas and Silver Mountain will thus attempt to become only the second to achieve this feat.

The Highlands Farms Stud-bred daughter of Silvano landed a plum draw of two in the Cape Guineas and after her devastating performance from a wide draw in the Fillies Guineas on Saturday, which inspired unbridled plaudits from pundits countrywide, she is likely to start favourite. She is likely to also be hot favourite for the inaugural running of the CTS Million Dollar on January 23.

By David Thiselton

Mike de Kock and Sheikh Hamdan won the 2014 renewal of the Secretariat Stakes with Mitraad (Aus) and they followed up at Turffontein on Saturday with Suyoof (Aus) who, like his stablemate, raced to an impressive victory under top weight of 60kg.

Suyoof is entered for the Gr1 Cape Guineas and Mathew de Kock commented: “We will see how he comes out of the Secretariat and play things by ear for the Guineas. Suyoof has all the ability but he’s still dumb, a bit green and due to his lack of maturity may not be up to it at this stage.”

Mathew also complimented replacement jockey Sherman Brown on a professional ride.

De Kock saddled another promising three-year-old Mooghamir (Gallileo) to a top-notch win in a MR78 Handicap over 1800m at Kenilworth on Saturday, considered as a pipe-opener with a view to the forthcoming Gr1 Cape Derby.

Jockey Anthony Delpech commented: “When Mooghamir saw Nebula sailing by, he woke up and took off after him. This was a notable win and he will improve more.”

Mike commented: “I like the way Mooghamir came back to beat Nebula. He’s a proper mile-and-half horse, he only got going properly at the 1800m mark. We brought him down to the Cape with Entisaar a few weeks ago and he settled very well here, based with Brett (Crawford) at Phillipi. He’s a horse that never stopped coughing back home but that seems to have stopped now.  We were considering the Derby for him and after this win we’ll be going for it.

Mikedekockracing.com

Picture: Mooghamir (Kenilworth Racing)

Mike de Kock’s latest recruits have arrived in Dubai and are currently in quarantine in the UAE.

The group, comprising Ertijaal, Liquid Mercury, Tellina, Mutamakkin and Al Mashooqa, as well as two new acquisitions Eisenhower (USA) and Winkleman (IRE), have all arrived safely and will be in quarantine for five days.

Most of the horses were trained by De Kock in South Africa but he also received two new acquisitions in Tellina and Liqiud Mercury who have joined the string for the 2016 Dubai International Racing Carnival.

Liquid Mercury is a four-year-old grey gelding by Trippi raised at Drakenstein Stud. Formerly in the care of Joey Ramsden, he’s won five of 11 starts, including the Grade 3 Cape Winter Derby. He was also placed in the Grade 1 Cape Derby – third to another Dubai-bound, Ertijaal.

One of the leading runners of his generation, six-year-old Maine Chance-bred Tellina has only four wins to show from 25 runs, but the Silvano gelding is a quality type with a Grade 2 Gauteng Guineas and the Grade 3 Wolf Power Handicap to his name. He has showed his mettle against the best for trainer Geoff Woodruff and has been unlucky at times, getting places in among others, the Durban July (third and fouth in respective years); and the J&B Met (fourth).

De Kock said: “Liquid Mercury is a smart sort. He was purchased for the stable from Joey Ramsden’s yard by Sheikh Mohammed bin Khalifa Al Maktoum, while the well-performed Tellina was given to us for this campaign by Dr Andreas Jacobs.”

– mikedekockracing.com

Picture: Ertijaal (Liesl King)

Piere Strydom had a relatively successful appeal against his 90-day ban, 50 of which was to be suspended for one year, for dropping his hands and getting caught on the line while riding Dublin Rebel at Turffontein on 27 August.

The race was won by Top Shot.

While pleading guilty to the charge, Strydom opted to appeal against the severity of the sentence and that was supported by the Appeal Board. The sentence was reduced to 25 days and will start on Friday, 11 December, as Strydom is committed to rides today at the Vaal and Thursday at Turffontein. .

That means he will not be able to ride in the Grade 1 Cape Guineas on 19 December but will be back in time for the L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate at Kenilworth in January.

      TABNews

Picture: Piere Strydom (Nkosi Hlophe)

The Gavin van Zyl-trained R2,5 million Lanzerac Ready To Run Stakes winner Budapest passed his important stalls test yesterday and is on track for the Gr 1 Grand Parade Cape Guineas to be run on December 19 at Kenilworth.

Budapest, who is actually trained by Gavin’s son and assistant Gareth under the new compartmentalised structure of the Van Zyl yard, delayed the start of the Ready To Run Stakes after being stubborn and reluctant to load and consequently had his starting stall certificate withdrawn.

Budapest (Liesl King)

Gareth said he had jumped “very nicely” yesterday and consequently regained his starting stall certificate.

He confirmed that one never quite knew what one would get with this horse in terms of behaviour at the track.

However, he is being given the best preparation possible in this regard, on top of his training for the race, as the renowned “Horse Whisperer” Malan du Toit has been brought in to work with him. Gareth revealed Du Toit would be trying a new strategy next time at the track which he believed would be more effective.

Budapest, an athletic colt by the Mossel Bay-based stallion Lithuanian, is being taken care of in Cape Town by Brett Crawford at the Phillippi training centre.

Gareth will be flying down soon to put in the final touches.

Budapest will be taken for a gallop at Kenilworth on Wednesday this week.

He has drawn wide in 24 out of 29 entries, as opposed to his draw of five in the Lanzerac, so is not going to have it easy.

However, Gareth was not overly concerned and believed due to his fine gatespeed and handy racing style he would have a better chance of overcoming the draw than most horses would.

Budapest is the only Van Zyl-trained horse down in the Cape at present, although a long-time inmate from the yard, No Worries, will be trained for the Cape Summer Of Champions Season by Glen Kotzen before being returning to his Van Zyl Summerveld base.

No Worries (Nkosi Hlophe)

No Worries’ original aim had been the Gr 1 L’Ormarin’s Queen’s Plate, but Kotzen has changed course and will run him first in the Listed Jet Master Stakes over 1600m on December 19, then the Gr 2 Peninsula Handicap over 1800m on Queen’s Plate day January 9 before having a tilt at the J&B Met.

Kotzen is coming off a second-place finish with the Var filly Our Destiny in the Gr 1 WSB Cape Fillies Guineas. She proved what the yard had thought of her and cocked a snoot at both pundits, who didn’t give her the time of day before the race, and punters who allowed her to jump at odds of 100/1. Kotzen also pointed out she would likely have finished closer had she not been so green.

Kotzen has as high a regard for the Cape Fillies Guineas winner Silver Mountain as the rest of the racing fraternity do, and reckoned this star in the making looked likely to run in the Gr 1 Grand Parade Cape Guineas on December 19, considering her draw of two, before taking in the CTS Million Dollar on January 23. He believed this could open up the way for three-year-olds to have a chance in the Gr 1 Klawervlei Majorca Stakes, which is also to be run on January 23.

Kotzen does not share the popular opinion that the three-year-old fillies crop is overall a weak one, besides the obvious exception of Silver Mountain, and pointed to Princess Royal running less than a length behind the best female sprinter in the country, Carry On Alice, in Saturday’s Gr 2 WSB Southern Cross Stakes over 1000m.

By David Thiselton