Gold Circle Pty (Ltd)

Today's Racing :

Laird banking on his smart trio

David Thiselton
Charles Laird, the country’s current Champion trainer, was up at dawn yesterday putting his J&B Met trio through their paces at their Kenilworth base.
The big race second favourite, Dan De Lago, worked on his own after Oracy and Smart Banker had earlier gone out together.
The horses arrived from Johannesburg on Saturday and all three travelled very well. They have been “eating up well” from the moment they arrived.
They did their final serious preparation gallop on Monday and since then have just been doing gentle work on the sand. Laird said, “It’s not an ideal place to prepare horses before the big race as there is a lot of maintenance work for Met day going on. For example yesterday (Tuesday) I wasn’t even able to walk them around the parade ring as they were busy preparing it, I had to find a place within the stable yard to walk them. But, I’ve been keeping my horses here since the early 1990s and have won four Cape Flying Championships out of here.” One of the first times he stayed here Laird sent out Rusty Pelican to win the Grade 2 Premium Stakes at Milnerton before finishing a close fourth to Surfing Home in the 1995 Met, while the now
successful sire, National Emblem, finished a close fourth in the Queen’s Plate a year later. Recently, besides his Cape Flying Championship wins with Nhlavini (x2), Rebel King and Warm White Night, he has sent out both Lion Tamer (2007) and Our Giant (2008) to finish second in the Met, both behind Pocket Power.
Laird is hoping to get the better of the great Mike Bass-trained champion this year. “Pocket Power is the one to beat again with the conditions very much in his favour. He has the weight advantage and a good draw. It’s his home course and he loves Kenilworth.”
Laird was in Australia when Pocket Power won the Queen’s Plate, but he watched a recording of it the other day. When reminded that Bernard Fayd’herbe had said Pocket Power had done it as easily as usual, Laird said, “Yes, but I don’t think he would ever not say that, would he. There have been too many people, including the likes of experts like Charles Faull, who said it didn’t look as easy as usual.” Laird felt his trio had a “serious shout” and confirmed that owners Markus and Ingrid Jooste, who own both Dan de Lago and Oracy outright and have a share in Smart Banker, are very excited at the prospect of winning their first Met. “There is not much between Dan de Lago and Oracy, but don’t write off Smart Banker either,” said Laird. “Dan de Lago is 25kg lighter than when winning the Gold Circle Derby last year. That is really just due to maturity as he was a big baby back then. “He is still only learning about it now. He has improved a lot and I am happy with his preparation. We thought of bringing him early for a 1 400m preparation race, but then decided against it and the race was scrapped anyway.” Dan de Lago’s missing that race had nothing whatsoever to do with a setback. Laird had no doubt that Oracy would stay the 2 000m. “He will stay 2 400m,” he added. “I think Anton (Marcus) was caught completely unawares by Oracy in the Summer Cup. The horse pulled him through at the top of the straight from about eight lengths back into the lead in a matter of strides. He still finished only 3,25 lengths back. “Considering he was still young and carrying 58kg, I thought it was a great run.”
Marcus obviously learnt a lot from that run and Piere Strydom, who now has the ride, is sure to know what to expect too. Laird said that probably due to Marcus first being booked for Oracy and then switching to Dan de Lago, everybody had seemed to have forgotten about Smart

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