Trainer Eric Sands said his Sun Met hero Rainbow Bridge had taken Saturday’s race well and he would now have a rest on the farm before heading for a campaign in KZN.

However, he did add the cautionary words “presuming he is still with us.”

Sands, asked on whether he had become confident as the race unfolded, replied, “I had been confident from Saturday morning, I’m not sure why, although I knew I had the right bloke on top. I only saw Do It Again running on down the inside when I watched the replay. I was only concerned about my own horse so only watched him and could see he was going to fetch the leader a long way out.”

The Ideal World gelding has a reputation for becoming hot in the preliminaries and also has a tendency to over race.

However Sands said, “He was better behaved but was his normal self. It didn’t matter though because the number went up in the frame.”

Rainbow Bridge did sweat up but Marcus’ confidence was buoyed when taking him down to the start faster than usual and then reining him back. He said, “He came back to me beautifully.”

Marcus’ reservations about the strapping four-year-old staying the trip were thus put to bed and he duly settled well in the running.

Sands concluded, “He had issues during the running of the Queen’s Plate but luckily we were able to get him over it.”

Rainbow Bridge missed last season’s Champions Season and instead ran in the first two legs of the Cape Winter series, both of which he won. He was then rumoured to be running in the Vodacom Durban July but this was halted due to a pending sale overseas. He failed the piroplasmosis test and the sale did not go through.

His career is following a similar route to the legendary Pocket Power’s, although the latter completed the Winter Series Triple Crown and then won both the L’Ormarin’s Queen’s Plate and the Met before heading for KZN for the first time.

An arch rivalry has developed between Rainbow Bridge and Do It Again and the Grade 1 Rising Sun Gold Challenge to be run at Greyville over 1600m on June 8 is shaping up to be a clash of the titans. 

By David Thiselton