Glen Kotzen is keeping an open mind about this season’s campaign
for his 2018 Cape Derby winner Eyes Wide Open, winner of the WSB 1900 and
fourth in the Vodacom Durban July.
The Woodhill trainer said: “I’m not yet sure what he will do
but we are giving him a nice long break and then we will see how we go.”
Glen Kotzen
The Dynasty five-year-old managed only seventh of nine on
his final start in the WSB Champions Cup but Kotzen doesn’t believe that this
should be written off as just the effects of a tough campaign, reasoning: “He
was out at the weights whereas in the July he was handicapped to win but again
they went too damn slow. Ideally I would love to have sent him to stud but
there are too many horses doing that this time round so we are racing him for a
further year.”
Stud is no longer an option for R6 million buy Charles,
second in both the Cape Derby and the Track And Ball Derby, because he was
gelded on Monday. “We will see how he takes this and then work out a programme
for him,” said Brett Crawford who confirmed that the unbeaten Somerset and Cape
Nursery winner Armando is in quarantine for Hong Kong. Interestingly he is
rated only 102, the same mark as controversially given to maiden winner General
Franco.
Ricardo Sobotker, Joey Ramsden’s long-serving assistant, was
noticeable by his absence in July and he disclosed why after Howl came good
under Ossie Noach in the fillies maiden at Kenilworth yesterday. “I had a
bacterial infection and I felt terrible but they said it was a viral infection,
not bacterial. I had it for four weeks and then my wife insisted on my going to
hospital. I was there for a week and had a further week under homecare. I feel
fine again now.”
Howl was reported to have tied up in her shoulder when she was beaten over six lengths on her previous start. “That’s the first I’ve heard of it,” said Sobotker. “She was beaten by a better horse (Honey Pie) that day but she is still a bit weak and the mile found her out. That said, she has potential.”
Liverpool Football Club got off to the best possible start
in the British Premier League on the weekend and Liverpool Champ could prove an
omen for last year’s runner-up in the BPL.
Gavin van Zyl saddles Liverpool Champ in the fourth on the
turf at Hollywoodbets Greyville today and along with Velvet Season, these two
could provide for an ‘anchor’ in the exotics.
Gelded and blinkered, Liverpool Champ made an inauspicious
start to his racing career, finishing a distant fourth behind Silva’s Fling.
Master Keys (Candiese Marnewick)
But stretched an extra furlong at his second outing, he made
marked improvement, beaten less than a length by Justfortheepenny, coming from
well back.
The winner is highly rated and with the extra ground unlikely
to pose a problem, Liverpool Champ looks a fair bet.
However, Velvet Season has yet to finish out of the money
since being fitted with blinkers and was beaten a whisker last time out. His
best recent form has been on the ploy track but he has also done well on the
turf and looks the most likely ‘Manchester City’ threat to Liverpool Champ’s
chances.
Quant Master and Matterhorn have the obvious form to back
their claims in the opening leg of the Pick 6, Quant Master possibly the pick
of the pair. Robbie and Shannon Hill’s runner was all at sea first time around
the Scottsville bend. His race was run as he compounded behind Loosen Your Tie
but the latter has franked that form with some forward showings in feature race
company. Quant Master putting up some useful sprint form down the straight and
although he goes the turn again today, he now has the experience and from the
best draw and a top rider in Donovan Dillon aboard, he should be right there.
Matterhorn made a smart debut when weakening late on debut
when fourth behind Alibi Guy and third-placed Liberty Hall subsequently
finished runner-up in the Grade 1 Premier’s Champion Stakes.
It is difficult to argue against that form and with the pair
drawn alongside each other, tactics will play a big role.
Hill Street Blues may be pick of the balance but these two look
set to dominate.
The handicappers have been slow to reduce the rating of
Techno Captain, much to the chagrin of Paul Gadsby, but although he shoulders
top weight in the fifth, he now looks to be off a competitive mark and can convert
his consistency into a fifth win. He has shown consistent form over shorter
which has probably been to his detriment as far as the handicapping goes, but
does seems better suited to today’s 1800m trip.
This is not easy race however and amongst others, all of
Viento, Sea Sponge and Frozen Tune need to be included in the exotics.
The sixth is
another tricky event but Simply Russian has some smart juvenile form in good
company. The form of her maiden win has panned out and she could prove too classy.
Scarlet Chill has won both starts for her new stable but took a five-point
penalty for her last win and has a big weight to shoulder but stable companion Roy’s
Pony is knocking at the door and is another that can feature.
The seventh
is made difficult in that there are a number of runners who are a touch off
form but quite capable should they find their best. Of those in form, Master
Keys won well last time out and has a touch of class. Petra is another who is
more than capable on her best form. She has not been far back in her last two
sprints and with the blinkers off she can do better over this longer trip.
Finally, in the last, Captain Demonami won a strong maiden last run and that form has since been franked. From the best of the draw he should again feature prominently. Someone Exciting is lightly raced and was a beaten favourite last start and although taking on males she stacks as the most likely threat to the selection.
TAB is taking all possible
steps to ensure customers do not suffer any financial prejudice arising from
the official result for the last race at Flamingo Park yesterday being changed.
The National Horseracing
Authority (NHRA) mistakenly declared a triple dead heat for third place in Race
9 and only corrected the error some 10 minutes after the official result had
been posted.
TAB initially paid out
according to the original official result and then had to amend the result and
payouts in terms of the corrected official result, which was 2 Poster Girl
first, 6 Crown Charka second, dead heat for third 3 What A Sarah and 13 Meet
The Logans.
The corrected official result
obviously caused significant changes to winning combinations and payouts
initially declared for the Place, Swinger, Trifecta, Quartet and Place
Accumulator pools.
Although in no way to blame
for the change to the official result, TAB is taking the following steps to
ensure that customers are not disadvantaged:
* The Quartet pool is being
refunded to satisfy international commingling partners, but anybody with a
winning Quartet ticket can submit a claim and TAB will pay them what the
correct official dividend would have been. All losing tickets will be refunded
in full.
* Any TAB cash customer who
was paid out before the corrected official result and received a lower payout
than should have been the case can submit a claim for the difference. This
applies to Place, Swinger, Trifecta, Quartet, and Place Accumulator bets.
* TAB account customers’
balances will be adjusted automatically in terms of the above.
* In-store TAB customers who
cashed what later proved losing bets can treat their payouts as a windfall.
*Gold
Circle customers wishing to submit claims must do so at a TAB Gold Outlet and
the Supervisor will then email the claim to CSC. Customers can call CSC on
031 314 1901 for more information.
Nash
Rawiller is back in action in Australia after serving his 15-month
disqualification and he wasted no time returning to the winner’s circle.
The
Australian, who was found guilty of receiving gifts or money in exchange for
tips in Hong Kong last year, had two winners in his first meeting back at
Kembla Grange. It was probably fitting the name of the horse he rode to victory
was Escaped.
In the
lead-up to his return, Rawiller broke his silence on the ordeal which saw him
interrogated by the Independent Commission Against Corruption as well as being
prevented from leaving Hong Kong for five months.
Nash Rawiller (scmp.com)
“I guess it
wasn’t just the shock of getting the 15 months at first, but obviously what
came after that,” Rawiller told Australian radio station RSN.
“Getting to the airport and about to get on a plane and being told I’m not going anywhere and having my passport suspended. I had one foot in the door. It was a bit of a shock.
“They
investigated me for the next five months and I was held there with my passport
taken off me.”
Rawiller
admitted one of his first thoughts was the Chris Munce situation – the jockey
served 20 months in jail over the “tips for bets affair” last decade.
“It is the
first thing that comes to mind,” Rawiller said. “I knew what I’d done and knew
I probably shouldn’t be in the position I was in, but I still had to go through
the process.
“And you
have that unknown little factor that you don’t know what someone else has said
or done.
“I kept
confident the whole way through that everything would be OK but they were very
trying times obviously. I just had to let it all play out. It’s probably made
me a better person.”
New trainer
Douglas Whyte is wasting no time building his team for the start of the season with
38 horses already on his books.
The
highest-rated horse is California Fortune (104), who comes across from the Tony
Cruz yard, while he also has Uncle Steve – the last horse he rode in a race.
In total, Whyte has 23 stable transfers this off-season – 19 more than any other trainer. It looks like he’s got plenty of support from owners and will hit the ground running.
Stephanie Miller claims that she was framed by a rival
trainer when Bongo Dance tested positive to testosterone when he ran second at
Flamingo Park last November and when needles with traces of the same prohibited
substance were seized by National Horseracing Authority officials at her
stables a month later.
The Kimberley trainer also maintains that the cattle prodder
found at her training premises in June was there innocently and that she would
never use it on a horse.
She has been fined R238 000 for these two offences and
for a third – an out-of-competition specimen taken from Cape Rebel in May being
found to contain traces of the banned anti-inflammatory Flunixin. In addition,
she has had her trainer’s licence withdrawn for three months for the cattle
prodder case, the withdrawal suspended for 12 months provided she is not found
guilty of a similar offence in the meantime.
Stephanie Miller
Mrs Miller said: “There has been an absolute hate
relationship between us (my brother and I) and another trainer for a few years
now and we had threats from him saying that he would make sure that our horses
tested positive.”
When asked if she was implying that this trainer was
responsible for the gelding Bongo Dance testing positive to the male hormone
testosterone (which would have jazzed up the horse) she replied: “Definitely
and in my bakkie they found five needles, and one of these was on the floor
without a cap.
“I train for my brother (Francois du Toit) and I opened both
his and my betting accounts to the NHA to show that we put not a cent on Bongo
Dance that day. But under the rules the trainer is responsible for everything
connected with the horse under his or her care.”
Mrs Miller admits giving Flunixin to Cape Rebel. “The horse
pulled a tendon, was in terrible pain and I couldn’t get a vet at the time. I
admitted my guilt to the NHA and said that this is what I did because I cannot
see a horse in pain.”
But it is the cattle prodder that has really brought down
the NHA’s wrath and seen Mrs Miller vilified on social media and in the
correspondence pages of the Sporting Post website. Cattle prodders, whose tips
can produce an electric shock, are real Dick Francis stuff so far as racing is
concerned.
The work rider is instructed to carry one instead of a whip
and towards the end of the gallop he gives a loud shout, touches the horse with
the prodder at the same time as he presses the relevant button and an electric
charge shoots through the horse. After receiving this treatment in two or three
subsequent gallops he knows exactly what the shout means.
When it comes to the race the jockey is told to shout a
furlong or so out and tap the horse with his whip. No electric shock but the
horse believes he knows what is coming and takes off like Usain Bolt.
“I am not an animal abuser and I would never do anything
like that to a horse but that cattle prodder had been sitting in my office for
two years unknown to me,” said Mrs Miller. “My brother and I have a farm and
two years ago we sold the cattle and bought game.
“I loaded the cattle onto a truck to take them to the
auction. I had a prodder on the farm but that day it wouldn’t work. I took it
with me to the stables and asked a trainer friend to have a look at it for me.
He didn’t know what was wrong and left it there but my staff put it on the top
shelf in my office without my knowing. The NHA raided my office on June 24 and
they found the prodder. I have photos of it with the battery acid leaking out
of it. But it was in my possession so I am responsible.”
Mrs Miller, 58, is the widow of Peter Miller who was the top
trainer in Kimberley for nine seasons on the trot before his death from a heart
attack at the age of 60 in April 2011. Their son Sean took over but was killed
in a motor accident in June the following year and Mrs Miller, known as Steph
to her friends, then assumed control of the training operation.
She has decided not to appeal against the fines and the
suspension because of the cost of further legal action. “I had an advocate
representing me in the testosterone case and I have received an account for
R293 000 for that alone. I have decided that I am going to go out of
racing. It has been a terrible time for me this last week although losing my
husband and losing my son were far worse.”
Hurricane
Harry could well have most to fear from Nevil Mu as he bids to lead a
potentially profitable day for Snaith Racing followers in the opening maiden at
Kenilworth this afternoon.
The Trippi
gelding showed plenty of promise on debut when ridden by Aldo Domeyer – and
starting joint favourite with more experienced stable companion Go Jewel who
won the race – and is sure to have benefitted from that outing. “How much
improvement can a horse make in under three weeks?” countered the trainer when
the question was put to him. “Probably not a lot but the experience of his
first run will be a help.”
Elusive Silva
The same
applies with Nevil Mu who was picked out by Winning Ways (and countless others)
when running on like a certain future winner on debut only ten days ago.
Admittedly it was in a far from strong field but he was drawn badly and ran
very green early. “I’d done nothing with him and he won’t miss next time,” was
Peter Wrensch’s post-race verdict.
Hurricane
Harry opened favourite at 3-1 with Nevil Mu on 9-2, the same price as Brett
Crawford’s Ridgemont colt Bag Of Tricks who has a length and a half to find
with Nevil Mu but, as he failed to get a clear run that day, he could well pose
a major threat.
Snaith says
he is making a point of getting his three-year-olds into action at the moment
and adds: “I am bringing out some nice ones including Halliberry (race two) and
Double The Fun in the last.”
Halliberry
is 3-1 favourite but she was flattered by her three-length second to Pretty
Young Thing against older horses on debut because the winner could have scored
by 12 lengths had Anton Marcus not eased her. Furthermore she is untested in
the soft.
Howl (33-10)
is better than last-time’s six length-plus second to Honey Pie would suggest
because she was reported tied-up in her shoulder after that run. However it was
only 17 days ago and so it might be better to take a chance with Ryan Munger’s
mount Sweet Karma who went quite close last time and is proven in the ground.
The
Interbet.co.za Pinnacle is the class race of the day but, as so often in this
type of race, it is complicated by those horses coming off a break (their
fitness is a matter of guesswork, often on the part of their trainers too) and
I prefer to concentrate on the Progress Plate.
Vaughan Marshall runs three of the seven including Binoche who impressed when scoring on debut. Marshall says that he fully expected her to win that day but shares the view of the handicappers that Mirage is the best of the three. She should win.
It was a
case of déjà vu at the 2018/2019 Cape Racing and Breeders Awards, held recently
at the Vineyard Hotel, with Snaith Racing and Gaynor Rupert’s Drakenstein Stud
again dominating the awards.
Justin
Snaith was crowned Cape Trainer of the Year, while his charges Do It Again, Oh
Susanna, Kasimir, Magnificent Seven and Miss Florida collected eleven of the Cape
Racing and Breeding Awards between them. Do It Again, who was crowned Champion Older
Male (breeding and racing), Champion Miler (racing), Champion Middle Distance
Horse (breeding) and Horse of the Year (breeding and racing), was the star of
the Cape Awards and is likely to repeat the exercise at the upcoming Equus
Awards. His nemesis, the Eric Sands trained Rainbow Bridge, was named Champion
Middle Distance Horse (racing), while his dam Halfway To Heaven was awarded
Broodmare of the Year for owners Wilgerbosdrift and Mauritzfontein Stud, who
also collected the Champion Breeder award.
Snaith was
full of praise for his exceptional superstar. “It couldn’t have happened to a
more deserving horse”, he said. “He has everything that you could want in a
champion racehorse, looks, temperament and talent, he literally ticks all the
boxes.” Snaith, who has enjoyed an incredible
year with Do It Again becoming the first horse since El Picha (1999/2000) to
achieve back to back victories in Vodacom Durban July, was also awarded the
Exceptional Achievement Award for the second consecutive year. His brother Jonathan, who is a key element of
the Snaith Racing team, thanked the breeders and owners of the Western Cape for
their contribution. “We have a cohesive industry in the Cape and it is the
people that make racing in the Western Cape great.”
Drakenstein Stud was named the Outstanding Breeder of the Year with Gabor being crowned Champion Two Year Old Filly (breeding), Kasimir collecting the Champion Sprinter trophy (breeding and racing) and Clouds Unfold named as the Champion Three Year Old Filly (racing). Owner Nic Jonsson also enjoyed a memorable evening with Do It Again, who he part owns, named Horse of the Year, while his homebred Miss Florida received the Juvenile Filly award (racing) and Magnificent Seven was named Champion Stayer (racing).
By Liesl King
Image: The Snaith Racing Team . . . recently awarded the Exceptional Achievement Award at the Cape Racing and Breeders Awards held at the Vineyard Hotel.
It will be a long time before the bookmakers recall the name
Al Bragga without a warm glow spreading through their systems and in the first
at Kenilworth on Saturday a massive gamble on the newcomer went spectacularly
wrong.
Mike Stewart, who trains Red Rum-style on the beach at
Noordhoek, may have a Summer Cup to his name but he operates at bargain
basement level and scores with well-backed first timers about as often as
Justin Snaith has a winner starting at 30-1.
Mike Stewart (Nkosi Hlophe)
The money poured on Andre Hauptfleisch’s homebred as if
there was no tomorrow and the Captain Al colt’s price tumbled from 15-2 to
19-10 favourite. “It’s not my money but I don’t think he will get beaten,” said
the trainer.
Yet the favourite lost ground at the start and never got
into it, finishing with only one behind him and over 20 lengths off the winner
Psychedelic. “He had shown plenty at home but Donovan Dillon said it was the
ground and that the horse hated every minute of it,” said a mystified and
bitterly disappointed Stewart. “I have worked Al Bragga in the wet, but in
ground that was possibly not as wet as it is here.”
It was Kate Meiring and Juan Batt who solved the mystery.
The course vets examined the colt on the instructions of the stipes and found
him to be lame on his off-fore.
The stipes had a busy time and they also quizzed Snaith
about the dramatic improvement of the 30-1 winner. “He showed a lot of pace in
his first two runs but at the end he died,” the trainer reported. “Now, with
gelding and a little bit more fitness, he managed to finish the race – but I
was surprised.”
Less so by the two Drakenstein homebred winners sired by the
ill-fated Kingsbarns – Queensbarns who looked a bit special when storming home
five lengths clear under Robert Khathi and Casino Queen who completed a double
for the eloquent Sandile Mbhele, rider of Psychedelic and now on the 49-winner
mark.
But the one that stood out, by winning distance at least,
was Cane Lime ‘N Soda who went clear over a furlong out under M.J. Byleveld in
the Betting World Maiden to score by more than eight lengths and give Vaughan
Marshall good reason to celebrate his 68th birthday a day early.
“I don’t want to get ahead of ourselves but he was bloody
impressive and he looks to have a bit of a future,” said Robert Bloomberg who
shares ownership with Ron Chetty.
If ever an owner deserved a medal for perseverance it is
Alfie Baum whose Duntoche came good at the age of five and at the 18th time of
asking in the Tab Telebet Maiden. She had been placed on half her starts so she
has kept producing a return and the Paul Reeves-trained mare never hesitated
when Morne Winnaar asked her to lead from the start.
We hear a lot about small trainers and the problems they
face so it is good to be able to report that Harold Crawford is pulling away
from that troubled category. Assistant Michelle Rix, who has turned things
round for her father, revealed after Orferd’s Flash’s victory under Ossie Noach
that the one-time single figure stable now has 30 horses plus ten two-year-olds
to come.
Brett Crawford, no relation, was responsible for three of the seven runners in the 2 000m handicap, and had a one-two with Principessa and Magic Mary. But it was last-race Reenan who kept the punters happy by winning the finale with a Glen Puller horse for the third time in the last six Kenilworth meetings. Ready To Rumble came home at 25-1 under Brandon May to give part-owner George Eveleigh the birthday present he wanted most of all.
Sean Tarry did not believe he had the firepower
to win last season’s National Trainers championship so it came as a bonus along
with his season’s chief target of “getting Chris (van Niekerk) over the
line.”
Loyal owner Van Niekerk will receive the South African Champion Owner award for the second time at the Equus Awards next week, where Tarry will receive the Trainer’s trophy for the fourth time.
Tarry said, “I thought Mike and Justin had
the goods last season. It is usually the trainers who win the R4 million races
who win it, so maybe it was days like Scottsville which kept us in the race.”
Celtic Sea (Candiese Marnewick)
Tarry won three Grade 1s in one day for the
first time in his career at Scottsville’s annual Festival Of Speed meeting in
May and was unlucky not to clinch a Jackpot of Grade 1s as Cavivar was hampered
in the Allan Robertson Championship and lost by a head. Tarry also sent out the
trifecta in the main race, the Tsogo Sun Sprint.
Tarry will approach this season like last and
said, “I will just tack on and if things look good will start
worrying.”
His dual Grade 1 winning sprint-miler Celtic Sea
will remain in training although she is not a certainty to go down for the Cape
Summer Of Champions season.
Grade 1-winning sprinter Chimichuri Run is also
not a certainty to travel down as there is only one proper race for him, the
Grade 1 Betting World Cape Flying Championship over a five furlong distance
which is a touch sharp for him, although it is a tough five furlongs.
Tarry said realistically speaking he did not
appear to have a Sun Met horse, unless the three-year-olds put their hands up,
as Cirillo, whilst having proven class, was not as good as the like of Do It
Again and Rainbow Bridge.
He said a line could be drawn through Grade 1
Tsogo Sun Gold Medallion winner Eden Roc’s run on eLan Gold Cup day in the
Grade 1 Premier’s Champion Stakes over 1600m as something had worried him on
course and he had become uncontrollable in the parade ring.
He labelled Putontheredlight, runner up to Eden
Roc in the Grade 2 Durban Holden Horseshoe, as another of his three-year-old
classic hopes for the season although added races like the Dingaans and Cape
Guineas were the true tests which showed whether a horse was up to it or not.
He mentioned a number of horses as candidates to
clinch him a third successive Gauteng Summer Cup.
He said, “I have a couple of nice horses off
decent marks. Lord Silverio had a premature injury last season which put paid
to his campaign and he is back in training, there is Al Mutawakel (unbeaten in
three starts), Zillzaal has had the gelding he needed badly, although the
Summer Cup might come too soon.”
He will also target the defending champion
Tilbury Fort at the Summer Cup and will consider running his Grade 1 SA
Fillies Classic, Grade 2 SA Oaks and Grade 2 Gerald Rosenberg-winner from last
season, Return Flight, although he said it was not the perfect race for her.
Tarry’s chief jockey Lyle Hewitson has departed
for a stint in Hong Kong, so will need to be replaced. He said, “I
don’t want to force any new relationship
but have got a lot of horses and those who put in the hard work will get the
opportunities.”
Gold Circle have allowed Tarry to take a “sabattical” from his KZN satellite yard at Summerveld which he will open again for the SA Champions Season.
By David Thiselton
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