Hawwaam might have just scraped home in the Grade 3 Tony Ruffel Stakes over 1400m at Turffontein on Saturday but he showed himself to be a potential champion in the process.
The horses immediately behind the leader slowed it up in the early stages and Gavin Lerena had difficulty relaxing the classy Silvano colt.
He used up valuable fuel in the process and had to draw on some more of the remaining reserves to make up the deficit in the straight. Furthermore, he was carrying a 2kg Grade 2 penalty and was running fresh over a trip too sharp. With all this taken into account, he would have been forgiven for coming out second best when a war of attrition developed up front.
However, instead he found the necessary extra to remain unbeaten.
Runner up Inexhaustible was beaten only 0,3 lengths, but with all due respect is unlikely to share the same patch of finishing-line ground with Hawwaam again.
De Kock had been considering sending Hawwaam straight into the Gauteng Guineas but was ultimately glad he ran him on Sunday as he said “racing experience is what this horse needs.”
Hawwaam’s trip to run in the Cape Guineas was aborted when rumours of an African Horse Sickness outbreak meant there was a threat that he would have to be kept in unsuitable vector protected quarantine conditions. De Kock said at the time, “His value and reputation are too high to have risked such an arduous trip.”
This statement was given more impact by Soqrat’s victory in the Cape Guineas and narrow second in the star-studded L’Ormarin’s Queen’s Plate as it has to be assumed the latter was not viewed in quite the same light as Hawwaam before travelling down to Cape Town.
De Kock has his best chance of landing the Triple Crown since his legendary Horse Chestnut became the first to achieve the feat 20 years ago. The first leg has two options, the Cape Guineas and the Gauteng Guineas, and the second and third legs are the Grade 1 SA Classic and SA Derby respectively. Soqrat already has the first leg under the belt and Hawwaam will be a short-priced favourite to join him. The pair will then go for the SA Classic together.
Querari colt Inexhaustible has a chance of staying the Guineas distance on pedigree. Third-placed Vontreo, who ran on strongly, is by Mambo In Seattle out of a Captain Al sprinter but gives the impression he will relish the step up to a mile. The disappointment of the race was Reach For The Line, who finished last and is proving a touch unreliable to date.
The Highveld three-year-old fillies do not look to be a vintage bunch and are hard to assess at present. This was underlined in Sunday’s Grade 3 Three Troikas Stakes over 1400m. Last year’s Equus Champion two-year-old Return Flight carried the maximum penalty of 5kg and found nothing after leading. The fancied Ronnie’s Candy raced too strongly from a wide draw and also faded. The De Kock-trained Storm Destiny flew up from far back to win, catching Running Brave on the line. This pair had been beaten by both Ronnie’s Candy and Return Flight in the Grade 3 Fillies Mile.
Later, Celtic Sea, who was narrowly behind Storm Destiny in the Fillies Mile, albeit when giving away 3kg, ran a fair 1,4 length fourth behind Hawwaam in the Tony Ruffel.
All in all The form of the Fillies Mile always looked dubious due to the narrow second-placed finish of the exposed 88 merit rated I Like It so it was not altogether surprising that the winner Ghaalla failed to place in the Cape Fillies Guineas. However, she does remain highly regarded by the De Kock yard.
The Johannesburg filly who does strike as being full of class is the SA Fillies Nursery winner, the St. John Gray-trained Ronnie’s Candy, but she needs a good draw as she raced too hard in the Fillies Mile and repeated the antic on Sunday. Before that, in a race which did pan out well for her, she won the Grade 3 Starling Stakes over 1400m easily.
Nevertheless, the Grade 2 Wilgerbosdrift Gauteng Fillies Guineas and the other legs of the Triple Tiara are at this stage looking to be wide open.
Earlier in the day in the Listed Storm Bird Stakes over 1800m the Gary Alexander-trained Chijmes provided a first Graded winner for the deceased Royal Academy sire Ato. The latter’s only Grade 1 win was over six furlongs in Singapore, although there was some stamina in his female line. The big, rangy Chijmes had no problem with the trip. He led and stayed on well under a fine ride by Dennis Schwarz. The next three in the running Atyaab, Owlinthetree and Marchingontogether all stayed on well and could be Derby prospects. The favourite Green Haze faded after being the first to challenge Chijmes and might not have stayed despite being by Gimmethegreenlight out of a Western Winter mare who won over 2000m.
The Grade 3 London News Stakes was won in amazing style by the St. John Gray owned, trained and bred-Dawn Assault. The G-Bets Summer Cup runner up led under Karl Zechner but was overtaken by both Al Danza and Pietro Mascagni. Zechner carried on riding vigorously even when he went a length down and the horse came back to win on the line. Dawn Assault is still an entire and is building up a record which might see him one day joining his father Call To Combat at Gray’s breeding operation at Hadlow Stud in the KZN Midlands.
By David Thiselton
