Record-equalling trainer Geoff Woodruff remembered a Tuesday morning before the 2014 Gr 1 Sansui Summer Cup when it was discovered today’s stable hero Master Sabina had pulled a tendon. The big bay’s career hung in the balance.

“Time has healed the wound for all of us,” he reflected. “It healed his injury and it healed our mental wounds, it was devastating for all of us.”

Two years later, last Saturday, the courageous son of Jet Master became the first horse for 25 years to win consecutive renewals of the Summer Cup.

There will be a lot to play for in next year’s Summer Cup. It is believed Woodruff will be attempting to become the first trainer in history to achieve five  successive wins of one of South Africa’s big three, the Durban July, the Met and the Summer Cup, while Master Sabina will be bidding to join the greats Java and Elevation in winning the Summer Cup three years in succession.

Master Sabina will be eight-years-old next year, but Woodruff is optimistic the athletic gelding will still be racing. He said, “He is such a young horse at heart, he was not even tired yesterday (Sunday). He will tell us if he wants to race next year, but at the moment he is sound and well, he loves racing and is very competitive. We will not abuse him and will race him sparingly and pick his goals carefully.”

One destination which will never be on his program again is Cape Town.

Woodruff said, “He hates it there, the slow pace doesn’t suit him and he doesn’t like a left hand turn. He’s good at right-handed Turffontein and Greyville. His worst form is at Kenilworth.” His chief target this season is likely the Premier’s Champions Challenge, to be run on 29 April next year. Woodruff said, “It is for R5 million over his favourite track and trip.”

There was a nerve jangling moment on Saturday when a gap began closing on the resolute Master Sabina due to July winner The Conglomerate hanging inward towards Master Switch. Woodruff said, “You do worry at moments like that, but I could see his little white blaze progressing all the way. He then put his body in the gap, shouldered The Conglomerate and straightened him.” The handsome horse surged through to win by a cosy 1,3 lengths under another brilliant ride by Gavin Lerena. It was Woodruff’s sixth Summer Cup and Lerena’s third.

Woodruff was also pleased with five-year-old Jet Master gelding Master Switch’s 1,6 length third. “He ran up to our hopes, he is a progressive horse with good form, he is a really nice handicapper and we will aim him at the July.” Master Switch had the disadvantage of a wide draw and also broke through the gates at the start.

Woodruff said, “He had to wait for a while and The Conglomerate then threw a tantrum which got him going. They never win after bursting through, the adrenalin gets going to early and it wastes energy. So from that draw it was a helluva good run. He is typical of the tall and leggy Jet Masters. Like Yorker, he is a late four-year-old and five-year-old. In fact he is lighter than Yorker, so has taken even longer.”

The yard could find nothing amiss with Deo Juvente after his disappointing run. Woodruff did not use the officially “very soft” ground as an explanation. He said, “It was warm and by race seven it had dried substantially. I would say the ground for the race was on the good side of yielding. Soft ground would not have suited Master Sabina.”

The yard will stick to shorter trips for their other runner, Master ‘N Commander.

Woodruff had been much confident before this year’s race than last, because the latter was only Master Sabina’s second run after the tendon injury.

He had finished second in the 2013 Summer Cup to stablemate Yorker and they had fancied him strongly two years ago in a race which was eventually won by his Triple Crown-winning stablemate Louis The King.

Horses coming back from tendon injuries often only last two or three runs before the injury reoccurs. The infliction is probably a trainer’s most dreaded nightmare.

It was thus fortunate the yard discovered the injury within an hour of it happening. They iced it and took other precautions before the veterinarian arrived. Consequently there is no core lesion and the tendon is no longer at the forefront of concerns.

The yard had earlier battled with a pectoral muscle injury to Master Sabina.

However, his 27 runs in a four year span speaks of one who has always been given sufficient time to recover from his races and hence his happiness and longevity.

Meanwhile, Woodruff has another powerful string to his bow in Saturday’s Investec Dingaans winner Singapore Sling.

He said, “He pleasantly surprised us. I was happy with his run in the Graham Beck, but he was still very green. When I saw him hitting the front on Saturday and not stopping I knew we had a top quality horse. He had been playing the fool with us. He had always felt top quality, but we had never seen it.”

The bare form shows the Philanthropist gelding improving from seventh in a MR 68 Handicap in his second career start, to winning a Gr 2 against some of best three-year-olds in the country two runs later. However, Woodruff pointed out he had been absolutely T-boned at the start of that second run and then impeded at the 300m mark.

“Gavin Lerena (who rode fourth placed Doosra) said this morning the Dingaans was a very strong field,” he revealed.

Singapore Sling, being a gelding, does not need to chase black type success. Stakes accumulation will be his aim.

Woodruff thus intends running him in the R1 million Cape Guineas on December 17 partly to see whether he will be suited to the course and distance ahead of his chief target, the $US500,000 CTS 1600 on Sun Met day.

By David Thiselton