Gold Circle Pty (Ltd)

Today's Racing :

De Kock keeps on delivering

Turffontein staged a meeting that had many good class horses carded this past Saturday on the inside track and anybody would have been forgiven for thinking it heralded the start of the Gauteng season that somehow continues to escape official definition. Unfortunately the intriguing day's racing had to be cut short due to a deluge that accompanied an electrical storm. Two of the four stakes races on the card were run before the storm arrived and the remaining two will be run at Tuesday's Turffontein night-racemeeting as the first two races on the card. The Mike de Kock yard sent out the winner of both the stakes races that were run to add to what had already been a great week for the stalwart International trainer. De Kock, sent out three winners, Musir, Mr Brock and King Of Rome on Thursday night at Meydan in Dubai. Musir, last year's Equus Champion Two-year-old colt, stamped de Kock's very high regard of him by pulling away to win the UAE 2000 Guineas Trial in his first overseas race despite carrying a Group 1 penalty. De Kock had won the previous two runnings of this race with Asiatic Boy and Honour Devil respectively and they both went on to win both the UAE Guineas over 1600m and the UAE Derby over 1800m.
Musir will try and emulate Asiatic Boy's triple crown victory, the latter having also added the Bahri Al Bastakiya Stakes over 1800m to his Guineas and Derby wins. Musir, an Australian-bred son of Redoute's Choice, has plenty of natural speed and de Kock rated him as possibly the best juvenile he had ever trained after he had won the Grade 1 Golden Horseshoe over 1400m on Vodacom Durban July day last year. On Saturday de Kock's classy five-year-old mare, Milk And Honey, got the ball rolling and finally earned bold black type by winning the Grade 3 Acacia Handicap over 1600m under a typically professional ride by Anton Marcus. The USA-bred mare by the stallion Belong To Me had put up some outstanding performances in the past, including a one length second to the now retired superstar Dancer's Daughter, at weight for age terms, in the Grade 1 Empress Club Stakes over the Turffontein standside 1600m. She also finished a 1,75 length second to last weekend’s J&B Met runner up, Mother Russia, when receiving 3,5kg in the recent Grade 2 Ipi Tombe Stakes also over the standside 1600m. Anton Marcus had her tucked in on the rail in midfield from her favourable three draw behind a very good pace set by the Mike Azzie-trained Muamba. Turning for home Milk And Honey was clearly still full of running and made up the ground quickly to hit the front. She had to stave off a challenge from the Gavin van Zyl-trained Prestic, who was returning from a seven month break, but had been targeted at this race from sometime ago. Milk And Honey, who started 2-1 favourite, never looked in serious danger of defeat, despite the eventual 0,25 length margin to Prestic, who found some late support to start second favourite at 6-1. The Paul Matchett-trained 33-1 outsider Golden Scold was a further 0,5 lengths back ahead of the de Kock-trained Candy Singer and the Gary Alexander-trained Lisa Anne. Milk And Honey is owned by the Haras De Gabba Syndicate. In the second feature, the Listed Wolf Power Handicap also over 1600m, the de Kock-trained Rudra was having his first outing since his facile win in the 2008 Summer Cup, but the 62-week break did not stop him routing the opposition under jockey Johnny Geroudis. A calvary charge ensued in the straight, but Rudra simply sauntered through on the rail in what could have been an action replay of his Summer Cup win. The Geoff Woodruff-trained Choisir finished second, 2,25 lengths back, followed by the 25-1 old-timer from the Gary Alexander yard, Bhekinkosi. The Sean Tarry-trained Regal Ransom and the De Kock-trained Bouquet-Garni were next best.

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