David Thiselton
The reputation of the three-year-old male crop lay in tatters after the weekend with two of the main protagonists, Jan Van Goyen and Trust, both disappointing as favourites.
However, it is not too late for a star to still emerge from the crop and the two aforementioned horses should be forgiven just one below par run apiece.
Jan Van Goyen is already a twice Gr 1 winner, but both of those wins, in the World Pool Moment Of The Day Champions Stakes and the Hollywoodbets Cape Guineas, were against his own crop.
He faced his acid test on Saturday against the best horses in he country in the L’Ormarins King’s Plate and came in for even more support on the day to firm to 15/10.
Meanwhile, his Highveld contemporary Trust was ready to do battle in the Gr 3 Got The Greenlight Stakes over 1400m on Sunday at Turffontein Standside and was the odds-on favourite, despite having to carry a Gr 2 penalty and give the rest of the field 2kg.
Trust had shown an exceptional turn of foot in all three of his previuos starts, which had yielded two wins and an unlucky second to Tin Pan Alley in the Gr 3 Betway Graham Beck Stakes over 1400m.
His turn of foot was on display when beating Jan Van Goyen in the Gr 2 Jackpot City Dingaans over 1600m, although the latter was making his reappearance after a four month layoff and the race did not pan out well for him.
Jan Van Goyen then came out and obliterated the Cape Town three-year-olds in the Gr 1 Hollywoodbets Cape Guineas, winning by a seemingly effortless 2,75 lengths.
The ease of his win was enough for all of the other three-year-olds to run away from him in the L’Ormarins King’s Plate and he ended up being the sole three-year-old in the race.
His status as favourite for the latter race was understandable due to the visual impression of his Cape Guineas win as well as the visual impression Trust had created.
Hopefully, that visual impression was going to carry the day, because when delving into Jan Van Goyen’s form before the big race on Saturday there were some worrying aspects to it.
Firstly, the Cape Town three-year-old crop’s form has always been muddled with horses taking turns to beat each other and no dominant force emerging.
On the other hand the same could be said for the older horses Jan Van Goyen was to face in the King’s Plate.
Secondly, the Dingaans form had an initial question mark and since then it had failed to stand up.
The initial question mark was that the East Cape raider All Systems Go had finished third. He was beaten 5,10 lengths and it is not the fact that he was from the East Cape that was the negative, rather it was his previous form. In his previous start the one-time winner had received 1,5kg from the crack champion filly Golden Palm in a 1600m event and had been beaten 6,75 lengths. Golden Palm had then come out and disappointed in the Gr 1 WSB Cape Fillies Guineas, starting at odds of 9/10 and being beaten 3,80 lengths into sixth.
Later, the Dingaan’s 5,40 length fourth-placed Shadowfax failed to win a Graduation Plate and was slammed 3,50 lengths by the admittedly promising 98-rated three-year-old One Eye On Vegas.
Later, the Dingaan’s 6,30 length fifth-placed horse, Copper Eagle, had been beaten in a Graduation Plate over 1800m, losing by 1,20 lengths to be 94-rated old filly Gerbera, from whom he received 2kg.
In the L’Ormarins King’s Plate Dave The King looked to have a chance, so it was surprising to see him going like the clappers from the off.
His best runs have been from the front or close to the pace but in those races he started winding it up from 1000m to 800m out, not all the way from the off.
It is not clear whether he was sacrificed as a pacemaker for Jan Van Goyen, but if so it did not help the latter at all, because the sectional times show the three-year-old to have also been going too fast.
He had little chance of maintaining that pace, but he would have been expected to finish closer than 9,10 lengths back whatever happened, so it was probably a flat run.
Nevertheless, the concerns about the strength of his form had held up and this was exacerbated when Trust disappointed the following day.
His usual kick was not effective and he was beaten 2,50 lengths, meaning he did not even perform as well as the winner, the 91-rated Splittheeights, when taking the weights into account and he performed only slightly better than One Eye On Vegas.
So, it looks to be back to square one when looking for a superstar among this crop.
On the other hand, great horses can often be forgiven one below par run.
The great Horse Chestnut was beaten by Century Stand over 1000m second time out and he later beat that horse by 14 lengths and 23 lengths respectively in the Gr 1 Cape Guineas and the Gr 1 The Classic over 1600m and 1800m respectively.
There could still be hitherto under the radar horses to emerge as the like of Big City Life, Legislate, See It Again, Green With Envy and Eight On Eighteen only emerged as stars after running in the Cape Derby.
