Brett Crawford, who won the Daily News two years ago with subsequent July third Edict Of Nantes as well as with Jackson in 2012, is to aim Charles at the R2 million Greyville Grade 1 on June 1 following the colt’s fine run in the G-Bets Cape Derby when he was only beaten a fifth of a length by the Mike de Kock-trained Atyaab.
Crawford said: “Charles ran a great race that day and he goes to Durban. There is a seven furlong race (Byerley Turk on April 7) as a starting point, he then definitely runs in the Daisy Guineas (May 4) and after that he will head for the Daily News.”
The precise value put on the form of the Cape Derby has been lowered by two kilos after Robert Bloomberg – acting for De Kock, Crawford and Justin Snaith, trainer of fourth-placed Bunker Hunt- lodged a successful appeal against the revised ratings of three of the first four. The Glen Kotzen-trained Herodotus, who was third, was not included in the appeal but his rating was also lowered by 2kg.
The mystery of Mushi Sterek remains. Nothing has shown up – even the blood tests were clear – to account for her poor performance when odds-on for her handicap debut at Kenilworth on January 12. She was in trouble after little more than a furlong and finished a long way last. The only outward sign that all was not as it should be came when she was tossing her head around going down to the start.
Crawford said: “She has now gone for a rest. We will give her a nice break and then start again.”
Much has rightly been made of Sean Tarry’s feat in training his 2 000th winner with Flash Burn at Turffontein last Saturday. However the corresponding achievement of his great championship rival passed under the radar during the 2015/16 season. Snaith’s total now stands at 2 530. Cape Town’s current winningmost trainer started operations in 2001 when he was 26 while Tarry was 28 when he first took out his licence in May 1997.
By Michael Clower
