Coral Fever is out on his own according to the official merit ratings for the GBets Summer Cup but trainer Robbie Sage still expects him to line up for the big race on December 1 despite him having to give the field 5,5kg.
Sage said, “We will wait until closer to the time but he took his Charity Mile run well and we will take our chances.”
Coral Fever’s win in the Grade 1 Premier’s Champions Challenge sent his merit rating up eight points to 118 but that did not stop him winning the Peermont Emperor’s Charity Mile in his last start.
Coral Fever (JC Photographics)
He received a further two points for that win.
The joint second highest merit rated horses are five-year-old Cascapedia and four-year-old Roy’s Had Enough on 109 meaning they will receive 5,5kg and 6kg respectively from Coral Fever.
Only 15 of the entries still standing are in the handicap at present as the minimum weight will as usual be 52kg.
In other Summer Cup news Sean Tarry said he would keep Warrior’s Rest in the Summer Cup but felt that off his 91 merit rating his chances of getting in were “nil”. He scratched the big horse from the Victory Moon Stakes and said, “He was well beaten in his last start. You can only go forward so much and if you do not see the evidence before your eyes you have to accept it.”
There are 43 entries still standing of the original 58 and 32 of them are higher merit rated than Warrior’s Rest so he will need a lot of scratchings to get in.
The panellists do not have to stick to merit ratings when selecting the final field and one of the horses who is under sufferance, Buffalo Bill Cody, is surely a certainty to get in considering he was given the maximum eight point raise for his last two handicap wins when demolishing the field. The Irish-bred four-year-old Redoute’s Choice colt is officially only 1,5kg under sufferance and is in fact the ruling favourite with the sponsor at 6/1, who have obviously recognised that without handicapping restrictions his merit rating would be a lot higher.
The Alec Laird-trained Green Top has drawn in pole in one of the supporting features on the day, the Grade 2 Ipi Tombe Challenge for fillies and mares over 1600m. Laird was frustrated by the slow pace in the filly’s last start on the Inside track over 1600m which turned it into a sprint for home and she had little chance of catching the decent Mike de Kock-trained Storm Destiny. A line can probably be drawn trough her run there, although she will face Storm Destiny on 5kg worse terms in the Ipi Tombe and also has to face the like of the Grade 1 Jonsson Workwear Garden Province winner Redberry Lane as well as last season’s KZN three-year-old champion filly Fiorella and last season’s Equus Two-year-old champion filly Return Flight.
By David Thiselton
