Gold Circle Pty (Ltd)

Today's Racing :

Prince has got the T-shirt

David Thiselton
Geoff Woodruff, a five-times Champion trainer, has two runners on J&B Met day, Met hopeful Prince Asad and Majorca favourite, Emblem Of Liberty.
Prince Asad put up a career best effort when romping home by nearly five lengths to win last year’s Reserve Stayers over 2800m at this same meeting and Woodruff said, “I have been heavily criticised in some quarters for running in the Met instead of the Reserve Stayers. But we’ve got that T’shirt and if you have a horse that qualifies for the July or Met, then you run them. It’s as simple as that. People are also judging Prince Asad on last year’s form, when we were off form. But his real form is what he’s done since being healthy again and that is, seventh in the Gold Cup, second in a feature race on the sand, a win over 1800m in a Pinnacle Plate and fourth in the Summer Cup. In the Summer Cup Johnny Geroudis said that he felt he’d gone too soon too. He is a versatile horse who has won from 1000m up to 2800m.”
Prince Asad travelled from the Vaal earlier this week and arrived at the Milnerton yard of Harold Crawford on Tuesday.
Woodruff said that he had travelled well.
“If you take the top two or three horses out of the race, there are question marks over many of the other horses,” he said. “So I think he has a place chance.”
Woodruff said that Pocket Power was the one to beat, “He’s proved himself a true champion and I can’t see anything beating him. Dancer’s Daughter is being talked up again, but I think Pocket Power is the better horse. The race comes only three weeks after the Queen’s Plate but Mike Bass is a professional trainer and there is no doubt he will have his horse ready on the day.”
Woodruff said of Emblem of Liberty, “My assistant, David Rahilly, has been taking care of her and has reported that she weighs the same as when winning the Paddock Stakes and her blood count is also very good. On her Paddock Stakes run, I would say that she is the one to beat. Dancer’s Daughter might have fluffed her lines but she still beat River Jetez, who had every chance. She now comes back to the mile which will be more suitable for her. Nobody gave us a chance in the Paddock and she is proof of us being off-form last year. In her last three she’s won the Listed Renounce Stakes over 1450m, the Grade II Ipi Tombe Stakes over 1600m and the Grade I Paddock Stakes over 1800m. She is a very good filly. I think the dangers would come from the higher rated three-year-olds. We won this race in 2003 with a three-year-old, Paraca, who beat a more fancied stable companion of ours, the four-year-old Raining Roses.The 5kgs the three-year-olds receive might give them a slight advantage at this time of the year, but the weight-for-age scale is there for a reason and if we win we’ll say, no they didn’t have an advantage.”
Woodruff flew down to Cape Town from Johannesburg yesterday.

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