Gold Circle Pty (Ltd)

Today's Racing :

Oracy is top class - Ramsden

David Thiselton
The three-year-old picture was thrown wide open over the weekend and one of the Cape’s top trainers, Joey Ramsden, reckoned that the Charles Laird-trained Oracy put up the best display he had seen by a sophomore this season when winning the Grade II Dingaans in just his second visit to the racetrack.
The New Zealand-bred Zabeel colt is out of a mare by Dehere, who is making waves in the USA and Australia as an outstanding broodmare sire.
Oracy settled well on the running rail from his draw of two but in the straight his inexperience showed and Christophe Soumillon had to throw the kitchen sink at him for virtually the entire 700 odd metres of the home stretch.
That he still beat the Highveld’s best three-year-olds while being that green leaves one wondering how much more he has to come as he also struck as one who would need further.
Ramsden would have been pleased to note late yesterday that Laird had not nominated any of his three-year-olds for the Cape Guineas on December 20.
His own Russian Revival colt, Bush Pirate, ran a fine 0,25 length second in the Grade II Selangor on Sunday behind the Dean Kannemeyer-trained Le Drakkar and will be one of the top contenders for the Guineas.
“He came from virtually the widest draw of all on Sunday and gave the winner a kilogram,” said Ramsden. “I thought it was a very good run and he has a chance of reversing the form in the Guineas.”
Ramsden mentioned the Alistair Gordon-trained Lord London as another of the most promising three-year-olds in the country although he reckoned that as a whole the strength of the crop lay in the Cape.
Besides Bush Pirate he rates Predestination, also nominated for the Guineas, as another decent prospect from his own yard.
On the fillies side his Windrush three-year-old, Mother Russia, recently won the Grade II Odessa over 1400m. She is the joint second highest-rated horse for this Saturday’s Avontuur Estate Fillies Guineas, which is the first Grade I race of the Cape Sizzling Summer Season.
Although Ramsden had revealed before the season that the strength of his yard would lie with the three-year-olds, it was in fact two of his older horses that won stakes races this weekend.
His seven-year-old Dominion Royale gelding, Something Else, caused an upset by winning the Grade II Merchants at Turffontein at odds of 33-1 but the result was of no real surprise to his trainer.
“He put up a very good effort with 63kg on his back in his previous race and in August he ran just over a length behind Battlestar Express from a very wide draw over 1000m in a Listed race at Greyville,” he said.
Indeed, Something Else was a whopping 7,5kg better off with Battlestar Express on Saturday.
“He is a very good horse on soft ground,” said Ramsden. “The reason I sent him to Durban was because over there and in Johannesburg there are some true handicaps for his sort of class in the sprint divisions. Here in the Cape there are only these silly conditions races where one or two stick out like sore thumbs and the rest are under sufferance.”
Something Else was given a patient ride by English jockey Darryl Holland on Saturday and Ramsden reckoned the chestnut had more to come.
“He is a happy and sound horse, so I think he still has a couple of years left in him.”
Something Else will remain in Durban and will now be given his African Horse Sickness vaccines.

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