Front And Centre leapt back into the WSB Cape Fillies Guineas picture with another bordering-on-brilliant performance in the Betting World Handicap at Kenilworth yesterday,
True, two of her rivals –Lanark and Fours A Crowd – made things easier for the 6-10 favourite by treating the start as a dress rehearsal for a funeral procession but she won so easily that they were hardly likely to have threatened her anyway.
Brett Crawford (Nkosi Hlophe)
Anton Marcus was content to settle the hotpot as Louis Burke and Kamaishi built up a lead that stretched to six lengths at one stage (Marcus: “I just ignored the leader – but I would have been happy to lead myself as I ride according to the pace”) but the Dynasty filly was always travelling like a winner and, after twice looking left in the final furlong for what proved to be non-existent dangers, Marcus dropped his hands and then looked twice more as if he couldn’t quite believe what he was seeing.
His mount coasted home three and a half lengths clear of Strawberry Fire with the others strung out with the washing. “She is actually learning and with every run she is racing better,” said her impressed pilot. “At Durbanville last time she put it together late but she was still a bit erratic on the turn.”
Marcus added, in a comment that said as much about his extraordinary ability to judge pace as it did about his mount’s ability: “She has a turn of foot and she can go close to running 23 (seconds) in the last quarter.”
He also said, and with the Fillies Guineas just round the corner this was even more significant, “I think she will be a lot better over a mile and on more of a galloping course.”
Brett Crawford seemed as delighted as the Kieswetters, saying: “We had a setback with her before the Western Cape Fillies Championship and had to scratch. We found that she had elevated muscle enzymes and we treated these with anti-inflammatories and diet. It is easy never easy to get them back but thank goodness she responded to everything. She is a really good filly, she has done everything asked of her and I was very impressed. This was a nice lead up to the Fillies Guineas so now onward and upward.”
Sand And Sea, so impressive on his return in a 1 200m progress plate at Kenilworth last Saturday but scratched from this Saturday’s Cape Merchants on Tuesday morning, was injured trying to hammer hell out of the float taking him back to his stables on Saturday evening.
Dennis Drier said yesterday: “He had to have ten stitches on his hock but maybe he wasn’t meant to run in the Merchants. It would have been tempting had he been OK but there are other races for him.”
One of the most important of these is the Cape Flying Championship on Met day. The four-year-old will be a major force to reckon with in that Grade 1, particularly as his trainer pointed out: “He is a different horse as a gelding.”
Andre Nel reported yesterday that Pleasedtomeetyou, who dropped out so tamely when starting favourite for that progress plate, was found not be suffering from the cough that has affected a number of his stable companions. “I think he is just over-rated at this stage,” said the trainer.
By Michael Clower
