David Thiselton 

THE Equus Horse Of The Year Summer Pudding continued her dominance of the Highveld on Saturday when beating two of her stable companions and three of the usual suspects with ease in the Grade 2 Colorado King Stakes over 2000m. The Paul Peter-trained Silvano filly’s racing style is ideally suited to the Standside track at Turffontein as she is able to relax in the running and has a high cruising speed and she can then pick off her rivals one by one in the long straight with her powerful and resolute finish.

However, it is unlikely that the Rainbow Bridges and Line Backers of South Africa are going to travel up to Johannesburg to take her on in her own backyard so the question remains whether she can perform to as high a level at away centres which all have tighter tracks. On current evidence a change in tactics is going to have to be employed if she is going to entrench her place among the greats by winning the  Vodacom Durban July.

She has only run away from home twice, winning the Grade 1 Woolavington 2000 at Hollywoodbets Greyville and finishing unplaced in the Grade 1 Cartier Paddock Stakes over 1800m. In the former race she looked in trouble at the top of the straight due to her lack of instant acceleration but after eventually finding topgear she hauled in her rivals in her normal resolute manner and won going away. In the Paddock Stakes she had a nice position in midfield behind a good pace but could only stay on at one pace while the horse she had sat behind in the running, Queen Supreme, accelerated away to a cosy victory.

That was undoubtedly the best field Summer Pudding has faced and she was beaten 4,95 lengths but there was also little doubt that she was not her usual self. She was duly found to have a nasal discharge and there was a lot of mucous in her airways. The horse she beat in the Woolavington by 0,90 lengths, Driving Miss Daisy, finished 2,75 lengths behind her in the Paddock Stakes which creates some leverage for her detractors.

However, Driving Miss Daisy was beaten 4,90 lengths by Running Brave over the same course and distance as the Woolavington when receiving 1,5kg from the latter in the subsequent Gold Bracelet and Summer Pudding gave Running Brave 2kg and a 2,50 length thrashing in the Summer Cup over the Turffontein Standside 2000m.

Anyway, Summer Pudding will be able to prove how good she is in her ideal conditions in the Grade 1 Premier’s Champions Challenge over 2000m on Turffontein Standside on May 1 as she looks likely to face the Vodacom Durban July runner up and Equus Champion three-year-old male from last season Got The Greenlight.     Unlike her Got The Greenlight is ideally suited to tighter tracks like Hollywoodbets Greyville as he has superb acceleration and he then tends to idle after hitting the front, so the Champions Challenge is going to be an intriguing tactical affair.

That pair might also have to face the top class three-year-old Malmoos in that race, which will add to the intrigue. Summer Pudding’s worth as an Equus Horse Of The Year is not in doubt.

Her nine run unbeaten streak was the best such sequence since Bush Telegraph made it nine from nine when winning the 1987 Durban July and she was never in doubt of winning any of those starts.  However, the question is whether Summer Pudding will be viewed in history as a Turffontein specialist?  The seed of hope that might enable to do just as well at Hollywoodbets Greyville can be found in her comeback run this season,  when sitting in second place behind a genuine pace in a 1600m event at Turffontein Standside. There was no sign of her usual flat spot and she instead quickened well and had soon put the race to bed.  So, she is likely going to have to be in the lead or close to the pace to have a chance in the Vodacom Durban July, if that race is her ultimate target.

It just seems likely from current evidence that she will run out of straight in the July if she sits in midfield and then attempts to overhaul the like of Got The Greenlight, Malmoos and the big guns from the Cape in the short Hollywoodbets Greyville run in, especially considering she is going to be asked, as things stand, to carry 57.5kg.