Gold Circle Pty (Ltd)

Today's Racing :

Big City Life is back

David Thiselton
Big City Life’s win of the Rising Sun Gold Challenge over 1 600m at Clairwod on Saturday looks better and better the more the race is analysed and he will have a good chance of winning the Vodacom Durban July for a second time in succession. The formbook will show that Glen Kotzen’s superstar beat the Mike Bass-trained Blue Tiger by 0,25 lengths, which might not make impressive reading as the latter has never won a Grade 1 and has also never won beyond 1450m. However, Blue Tiger was one of the few horses in the field who was at his absolute peak and he turned it into a searching test of fitness by setting a blistering gallop from the off. The high quality field, in which the four-time Grade 1 winner Mother Russia was the lowest rated on 109, ended well strung out with Pocket Power and Smart Banker two lengths back in third and fourth respectively and Rudra a further three lengths back in fifth. A strung out field is usually a sign of very strong form. Pierre Strydom landed the ride on Big City Life after a last minute scramble to find a replacement for Andrew Fortune. Strydom flew in an hour before the race and flew out again immediately as he attended the England-USA World Cup match in Rustenberg. Raymond and Paula Deacon, part-owners of Big City, were enormously impressed with Strydom. Strydom told the connections that he had been very impressed, especially considering Big City Life had tired late and obviously will have more to come by the time of the July. Big City Life’s victory was the first ever win for a loyal owner of Glen Kotzen’s, Sue Whitmore, who is also known as Lady Wragness. She bought a share in the horse together with Leanne de Jager after the J&B Met. Whitmore was in England on Saturday, but found somewhere to listen to the race, and recounted to Raymond Deacon how she had astonished all the bystanders by leaping up and down in the middle of a hurdle race. Another part owner, Glen Mitchell, watched from Cape Town and his excitement was of similar proportions. A lot of pundits had written off Big City Life as a horse that had not trained on from his brilliant three-year-old career. “People forget that he received 7kg from Pocket Power in the July,” said Kotzen. “In his next start he lost to him by three-quarters of a length over 1 500m at level weights. In the Met he had to come from 28 lengths back at the top of the straight and finished only 3,6 lengths back. That was a great run. People say ‘he’s back’ but we’ve never thought he was gone.” The Vodacom Durban July is at a very difficult time for trainers this season - Saturday, July 31 - as they have to keep their charges going for a month longer than usual. Most of the horses that were not at their peak were found out by Saturday’s searching gallop. Pocket Power began his return appearance to Clairwood by refusing to parade in front of the grandstand.
Bernard Fayd’Herbe said, “Normally he allows himself to be led down in front of the stand and as soon as he is let go he whips around and heads for the start.
He came out today, heard the music (from the Rising Sun carnival area) and I could feel him saying - there’s no way I’m going down there. He whipped around and I had to scream to the groom to let him go.” Pocket Power has a unique way of finishing off his races, quickening at the top of the straight, then “hovering” for about 200m or more, before delivering his devastating and famous final kick. On Saturday he quickened and moved up as menacingly as he usually does, but his final kick failed to materialise. He showed typical courage in fighting on to snatch third. The Charles Laird-trained Smart Banker lost his unbeaten record over 1600m, but ran a fine race considering he had run a close third with a Grade 1 penalty in very testing ground just five weeks earlier in the Champions Challenge over 2 000m. Champions Challenge winner Regal Ransom finished a fair 6,8-length sixth considering he probably needed the run. Rudra was a never threatening fifth over a distance short of his best.

\| All information on these pages are (©) Copyright Gold Circle Pty (Ltd) 2002 \| site map
(This site is best viewed at 1024 X 768)