Gold Circle Pty (Ltd)

Today's Racing :

Fayd’Herbe delivers ‘Ride of the Season’

David Thiselton
The World Cup football stars might be getting all the attention at present, but three sportsman of equal calibre in their field, Kevin Shea, Bernard Fayd’Herbe and Anton Marcus, set Greyville alight at Saturday’s Canon Gold Cup meeting with brilliant if not miraculous rides aboard a trio of racehorses that could also hold their own against the world’s best.
To cap it all the two trainers involved, Mike de Kock and Mike Bass, would be up with the best of the coaches seen at the World Cup.
Fayd’Herbe stole the show with a ride that should win ‘Ride of The Season’ hands down, but will probably not get a mention as the skilful part came at the beginning and not in the last 200m. His mount, River Jetez, stumbled so badly shortly after the start in the Grade 2 Tibouchina over 1 400m that her nose virtually touched the turf. Nine out of 10 jockeys would probably have fallen off but Fayd’Herbe, who has the balance that a tight-rope walker would envy, did not even flinch and was rousting her into a better position within a stride.
River Jetez had commandeered the parade ring and canter down like a queen, her presence dwarfing all of the top class opposition around her.
After the stumble some of her supporters groaned, but they didn’t reckon with her heart. She is a tempestuous sort, who would never accept anything other than leadership. She came home like a lioness, thrilling the crowd and once again winning the admiration of her owner Marsh Shirtliff. It is astonishing that two horses of such calibre as River Jetez and Pocket Power are full siblings and the credit must go to Dan de Wet, who bought their mother Stormsvlei at a sale for R20 000 and then identified Jet Master as an absolutely must-go-to stallion.
Another filly on her way to stardom is the De Kock-trained Irish-bred Gibraltar Blue. She stamps her presence in a different way to River Jetez.
She is not as tall or as lithe or feisty, but rather she leaves the talking to her strongly built and power-packed body.
In three starts around the turn to date in South Africa she has drawn nine out of nine, 14 out of 15 and 14 out of 16, yet she won all three, two of them being Grade 2 races at one of the country’s tightest tracks, Greyville.
In her other race she was narrowly beaten in a Grade 1 race down the straight over 1 200m. What makes these achievements all the more remarkable is that being Northern Hemisphere-bred she is six months younger than her contemporaries. Although she received a 1,5kg Northern Hemisphere-bred allowance on Saturday, on a true weight for age scale she should have received 3kg from her fellow three-year-olds. Marcus was brilliant in slotting her into second place on the rail from that wide draw. From there she powered past the pacemaker and put enough lengths in the bank to hold off the closers.
De Kock made a point of mentioning just how good this filly was in his book, emphasising her age, her readiness to race and her style of racing as factors that separate her from the pack. De Kock had earlier captured his second career Grade 1 Canon Gold Cup over 3 200m with Ancestral Fore. The race is normally held in August, meaning very few three-year-olds are on the list of winners, the last one being Castle Walk, who won in 1988 when the race was held in late July. But that shouldn’t detract from the superb preparation he had given the well-balanced grey. Jumping from draw 12, Shea, who with his fine balance and hands is a sort after jockey for top horses, had him perfectly positioned in seventh place on the rail going down the back straight and it was clear a long way from home that he was the likely winner. The pleasure Shea got from another career milestone, this being his first Gold Cup win, caused him to jumble his words, and he said, “One more less to win.’’

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