Mike de Kock’s Gr 1 Woolavington 2000 fancies Majmu and Pine Princess and his Gr 1 Daily News 2000 contender Ertijaal arrived at Summerveld last week and have all been doing well.

Meanwhile, he will try Jayyed in blinkers in the Daily News 2000, after his disappointing unplaced run in the Gr 2 Betting World 1900.

The champion Majmu will be hard to beat in the Woolavington and her exceptional turn of foot coupled with her powerful, sustained finishing run should see her taking well to the tight Greyville track. She was beaten over this 2000m distance last time out in the Gr 1 President’s Champions Challenge against older males at Turffontein but was carrying a Gr 1 penalty, so on paper she put up at least as good a performance as the winner Wylie Hall, who was only carrying a Gr 2 penalty. Furthermore, that was her second race after a layoff and might have been a slightly flat run.

Majmu’s world class performance in the Gr 1 Avontuur Estate Cape Fillies Guineas, which she won with contemptuous ease by 2,5 lengths, remains the best form race of the season. Runner up Inara, who subsequently won both the Gr 1 Maine Chance Paddock Stakes over 1800m and the Gr 1 Klawervlei Majorca Stakes over 1600m, will likely be Majmu’s chief rival on Saturday and has the advantage of a pole position draw, course experience and she should also relish the trip, but she still has a bit to do to reverse the form.

De Kock’s Gr 1 SA Oaks winner Pine Princess has also been doing “very well” and De Kock said she had improved. She is a courageous sort who showed a fine turn of foot in the Oaks to make up the leeway quickly at the top of the straight and she later fought back when headed to deny Siren’s Call the Triple Tiara. It would be no surprise to see her going handy from a wide draw and making a bold bid down the straight, although over this sharper than ideal trip she will probably be vulnerable to the closers like Majmu.

De Kock confirmed that Ertijaal would appreciate the likely firmer ground and, having watched him quicken very well in the Gr 1 SA Derby before “falling in a hole”, he believed the 2000m trip was his optimum. He is versatile in running style, but hasn’t run on firm ground since his impressive pillar-to-post win in the Investec Cape Derby over 2000m. His draw of ten hasn’t done him any favours, but jockey Anthony Delpech knows the course well and will be riding him for the third time.

De Kock said that Jayyed had to be “pushed along” for most of the journey in the Betting World 1900. He also appeared to show little interest in the straight. This Jet Master colt has had a successful breathing operation and before that had advertised his talent with a narrow second in last season’s Gr 1 Premier’s Champion Stakes over 1600m. Hopefully the blinkers will reignite him and if it does he will be a contender in an open race from pole position with champion jockey S’Manga Khumalo up.

De Kock also runs Kingston Mines and Raees in the Gr 3 Lonsdale Stirrup Cup over 2400m. Both of them won their last respective starts over this trip. Kingston Mines, as the winner of the Gr 2 J&B Urban Honey Stayers and the Gr 3 Caradoc Gold Cup, has likely booked his place in the Gr 1 eLan Property Group Gold Cup already, so is likely to be viewing this as a preparation run, while Raees will need to go all out for victory off his lowly 86 merit rating, which sees him 0,5kg under sufferance.

By David Thiselton

The Mike de Kock-trained three-time Gr 1-winning sprinter Alboran Sea has been retired after sustaining a knee chip when running second in Saturday’s Gr 1 City Of Pietermaritzburg Sprint and will be covered by another former De Kock-trained star Soft Falling Rain in the forthcoming breeding sason.

Meanwhile, two of De Kock’s star two-year-old fillies Entisaar and Shaama are also unlikely to run again this season.

De Kock said that the connections of Australian-bred three-year-old Alboran Sea would not be considering operating on the knee and bringing her back to racing. Firstly, her local record, in which she won the Gr 1 Allan Robertson Championship over 1200m as a two-year-old and two weight for age Gr 1 Sprints over 1000m this season, the Betting World Cape Flying Championship and the Computaform Sprint, could hardly be improved upon and any further wins would not increase her already high stud value. Secondly, an overseas campaign has been ruled out due to the arduous five month journey via Mauritius and Europe that has to be undertaken to campaign horses in places like Dubai.

De Kock said he had suspected something had been amiss on Saturday when the Rock Of Gibraltar filly had not gone through with her effort in her normal fashion. She had been in a position to challenge the eventual winner Carry On Alice, but had made little impression and only just managed to hold on for second, which was still a fine effort considering she had to come from an unfavourable high draw.

Shaama had earlier started favourite for the Allan Robertson but disappointed, running a well beaten seventh, and she was found to have pulled up lame on her off fore, so will be given the rest of the season off.

The Allan Robertson winner Entisaar has pulled up well but De Kock believes she has done enough this season, having also won the Gr 2 SA Fillies Nursery, and he is also not convinced she will stay much further than sprint distances so she “will be put on ice”.

His Gr 1 Tsogo Sun Gold Medallion fourth-placed Muwaary “wants to go the Derby distance”, being by the classic producing sire O’Reilly. De Kock is “not in a hurry” to run him again this season as he is an immature sort, but he might consider running him in the Gr 1 Golden Horseshoe over 1400m on Vodacom Durban July day and/or the Gr 1 Premier’s Champion Stakes on Super Saturday provided he drew well.

By David Thiselton

Picture: Alboran Sea (Nkosi Hlophe)

Mike Bass, who has won four of the last 12 runnings of the Winter Classic, is responsible for almost half the field in Sunday’s Kenilworth feature.

Stable jockey Grant van Niekerk will be on Sail For Gold who beat all except Act Of War in the Winter Guineas and Greg Cheyne retains the mount on Royal Dreamer  who was less than half a length back third in that race. Seven Oceans (Karl Neisius) and No Resistance (Aldo Domeyer) are the other Bass runners in the R250 000 Grade 3.

S’Manga Khumalo and Gavin Lerena, the first two in the championship battle, both fly in for the meeting. Lerena rides Parachute Man for Darryl Hodgson in the Classic as well as Geoff Woodruff’s first runner from his new Milnerton satellite yard, Desert Destiny in the Stormsvlei Mile, while Grant Behr has been booked for Woodruff’s Ntombe in the Olympic Duel Stakes.

Khumalo has four rides – Chisanyama for Joey Ramsden in the Juvenile Fillies, Crystal Cavern (Stormsvlei) and Fear Not (Olympic Duel) for Adam Marcus, and the Mike Stewart-trained My Friend Fred in the last race maiden.

Hot Affair, the forgotten member of the Cape Town three-year-olds, is finally on the way back. She has not raced since suffering an epistaxis immediately after winning the Kenilworth Fillies Nursery just over 12 months ago. She then chipped a knee when brought back into work.

Mike Robinson said: “She is back in training again and there is a race for her at the end of June.”

By Michael Clower

Picture: Mike Bass (Liesl King)

Glen Kotzen is bullish about the chances of his charge Light The Lights in Saturday’s Gr 1 Daily News 2000 and champion trainer Justin Snaith expects a much better showing from his talented sort Ultimate Dollar.

Kotzen said, “Light the Lights is doing great, I am really pleased, he is fit and well and drawn well and is going over his right trip for the first time. His grass gallop for this race was the KRA Guineas and he has come on for it. This will be his test to see whether he can make it into the July field and he will need to be in the first three to do so.”

Kotzen was confident that the Western Winter colt could achieve the latter goal and spoke of how well this horse had filled out lately. Kotzen has always viewed him as a sort that would only come into his own in the latter part of this season and the Vodacom Durban July has been this target from a long time ago.

Light The Lights has followed the identical route into the big race that Kotzen’s 2009 July winner Big City Life did, although he has a long way to go to fill the latter’s boots. The current three-year-old males are not being viewed as a vintage crop and Light The Lights’ task of making the first three on Saturday have been made harder by the entry of the filly Siren’s Call, who is one of the best of an outstanding three-year-old filly’s crop.

Furthermore, the Gr 1 SA Classic one-two-three, French Navy, Amsterdam and Deputy Jud, as well as the Gr 1 Investec Cape Derby winner Ertijaal, have all entered the fray. Light The Lights’ great sire Western Winter is usually viewed as a speed influence, but his Northern Guest dam First Arrival won a Gr 3 over 2000m, so he should relish the trip. He found the rail from a plum draw in the KRA Guineas and stayed on well for third. However, on that form he has 2,75 lengths to make up on The Conglomerate and 0,75 lengths to make up on Mac De Lago. He has landed another fine draw of three and regular rider Greg Cheyne will be aboard.

Ultimate Dollar, a gelding by Jet Master, has always struck as one who will relish this trip. His run in the KRA Guineas, when finishing a 5,95 length twelfth, can’t be taken literally as he is sort who takes a while to wind up into his big action and on that occasion he got stuck behind the pacemaker Riff Raff, who was going backwards before the turn. It badly affected his momentum. He is drawn perfectly in five on Saturday with Richard Fourie up and Snaith said, “I’m not saying he would have won the Guineas but he would have finished three lengths back instead of five lengths and I have been waiting to put him over 2000m for a long time.”

Ultimate Dollar’s dam Mkushi Gold by Western Winter was stakes-placed and won from 1200-1600m and she is a half-sister to both a stakes-winning sprinter and a stakes-winning stayer.

By David Thiselton

Picture: Glen Kotzen

The very much in-form Cape trainer Dean Kannemeyer was realistic about the chances of his Gr 1 Woolavington 2000 contender Indaba, although he said she would definitely strip fitter this time than she did for her last run when finishing tailed off last in a Conditions Plate over 1400 at Greyville.

Kannemeyer said, “She is a nice filly, but she still has a lot to prove. She was badly in need of her last run. We were on the back foot with her when we arrived in KZN and have been playing catch up.”

The Dynasty filly’s three wins have all been over 1600m and she ran a decent third in the Gr 3 Victress Stakes over 1800m. She should get this 2000m trip, but off a merit rating of 96 against some of the best from a vintage three-year-old fillies crop she faces a tough task, especially when considering it is her second run after a layoff. She is drawn eight in the twelve horse field and Stuart Randolph rides.

By David Thiselton

Picture: Dean Kannemeyer