Gold Standard is the star attraction at Durbanville tomorrow but last season’s Sun Met fourth faces a stiff task in the World Sports Betting Matchem Stakes.
Richard Fourie’s mount has to overcome an eight-month absence but a bigger problem could be his limited preparation. “He has only had one gallop and it was a soft one,” says Glen Kotzen. “I had planned to give him a second but the gallops were closed. I’m just hoping his class can pull him through but there are some good sprinters in the field and they will make him go.”
Gold Standard (Liesl King)
He is the best horse in the race but at the 12-10 offered by the sponsors he looks much too short. Second favourite Table Bay has never really lived up to the expectations generated by his brilliant Cape Classic win – maybe the likes of me overestimated him – and his third in the Cape Guineas (over three lengths behind Gold Standard) was considered a disappointment at the time.
He just might come back to his best here. Certainly it would be no surprise to see Anton Marcus dictating things and kicking unassailably clear early in the straight. But at only 5-2 there is better value to be had elsewhere.
Probably not with 11-2 chance Copper Force, though. “His ten draw is not going to help. We will have to drop him out and come from the back,” says Justin Snaith. “It’s going to be a question of whether he can get there in time.”
La Favourari comes out the same as Table Bay on adjusted merit ratings and only two lengths behind Gold Standard. He has won his last four and Bernard Fayd’Herbe is a wily old fox who will have spent some time working out all his tactical options, particularly from pen nine. A slow start or a Copper Force-style drop back could be fatal but his real problem is that his mount is a sprinter.
Such horses are sometimes able to last home over this easy 1 400m. Can this one do so? “We are not sure,” answers Andre Nel. “But we are taking a chance because of the way the course is running at the moment.”
La Favourari (Liesl King)
At 20-1 he makes the most appeal of all. You could back him each way but, if his stamina runs out before the end, he will probably drop back out of the placings. A saver on 25-1 shot Silicone Valley might be a better option. Things didn’t go well for him last time – Piet Botha couldn’t get in – and, but for his recent drop in the ratings, he would come out the equal of Gold Standard at the weights.
Black Cat Black (Brett Crawford: “I will be disappointed if he is not in the first four”) and Our Mate Art have the considerable advantage of a good recent run and apparently it would be folly to dismiss 14-1 chance Always In Charge even though he has to give weight all round and has been off for eight months. “He had a gallop at Kenilworth about three weeks ago and he won’t need the run,” warns Vaughan Marshall who was in blistering form here on Wednesday.
Marcus’s mount Goodtime Gal makes a lot of appeal at 6-1 in the Diana after winning a sprint 18 days ago (Mike Robinson: “She has come on nicely and she will enjoy the trip”) but the vibes are even better about 8-10 hotpot Gimme Six.
“Some of the others are quite fit but our filly had a gallop at Kenilworth and it was very good,” says Snaith. “She went on her own but she was impressive.”
By Michael Clower
