Whisky Baron has been promoted to 8-1 third favourite for the Sun Met after making short work of the opposition in the 1 800m Allowance Plate at Kenilworth yesterday.
He was previously as big as 15-1 but the Australian-bred quickly put daylight between himself and the rest after Greg Cheyne sent him on two furlongs out – and he looked value for more than the length and three-quarters he finished in front of Macduff.
Greg Cheyne (Liesl King)
Cheyne said: “The pace was fair – it wasn’t the crawl that I thought it might be – but his turn of foot is amazing.”
Brett Crawford has an open mind about immediate plans and explained: “The L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate (January 7) is an option but he can only get 3kg for winning this so he could go for the Peninsula Handicap on the same day. I will discuss it with the owners.”
The four-year-old has won all three starts since being gelded and seemingly the operation has had a marked effect with the trainer explaining: “He used to be a big burly horse but he is now much more athletic.”
Brazuca, weak in the market – he drifted from odds-on on Monday to 7-2, faded to finish with only one behind him after making much of the running but rider Randall Simons reported: “He hung out and he needed the run badly. He will come on a lot from this.”
Betting World marked him out from 22-1 to 33-1 for the Met but Macduff, a rather insulting 500-1 before the race, is now down to 150-1. However you can still get 100-1 about Mambo Mime despite his pleasing Dean Kannemeyer by finishing third.
Kannemeyer said: “He deserves a crack at the Met and I’m now looking to nominate him for the Queen’s Plate. He ran a nice race here despite being big and blowing hard afterwards.”
The handicappers have given the first two in last Saturday’s Grand Parade Cape Guineas a hefty hike. William Longsword has been raised 5kg to a new rating of 109 while Gold Standard, beaten only half a length, has gone from 96 to 108. However third-placed Table Bay has been dropped a kilo to 106. As he was over three lengths away, the assessors obviously feel he is capable of better.
By Michael Clower
