Mike Azzie’s Gr 1 SA Derby runner up Deputy Jud has been gelded since returning from KZN and has been doing some fantastic short, sharp work in preparation for the Gr 2 R1 million Supreme Cup sponsored by SAP this Saturday.
Azzie makes the Judpot gelding the yard elect ahead of the Tiger Ridge gelding Isphan purely due to his better draw.
Azzie admitted the one concern about the four-year-old Deputy Jud was the 1450m trip could be too sharp but added, “I have freshened him up completely and kept him to short, sharp work and in his final workout he jumped like a sprinter. We had wanted to geld him a while ago but the races were all on top of each other so couldn’t. He is a better horse since the gelding, he is more honest, he is running straight and not running all over the place.
“He won his only start on the sand by 4,25 lengths (over 1600m in his second career start last November) and I deliberately kept him away from the surface in case he was a sand freak and would become merit rated out of it. He could be the surprise package in the race.” Deputy Jud jumps from a great draw of four and will be ridden by JP van der Merwe.
Azzie said about the four-year-old Isphan, “We’ve always wanted to send him over this sort of trip and now that we do he goes and lands a terrible draw. With a good draw he could have used his fantastic gatespeed to get there for nothing, but now it’s going to be tricky and we will have to think about how to ride him.”
Isphan’s first career win was actually over this trip on the Turffontein Inside course and he has held his own against some of the best sprinters in the land since then.
Isphan has won twice on the sand before. He will be ridden by Francois Herholdt from draw 15, which will come into 12 if the three reserve runners come out.
Azzie concluded by saying both of his contenders were “very, very well.”
Deputy Jud and Isphan are both well weighted under the conditions of the race as their respective net merit ratings of 102 and 98 coincide with the top of the 54kg merit-rated band and the 52kg merit-rated band rspectively.
Azzie contests two other features on the day, the Non-Black Type Investec Sophomore Fillies 1000, with three horses, La Strada, Mella Maria and Inyanga, and the Listed Britehouse Fillies and Mares Stakes over 1450m with Peep Show. He gives all of them chances and said if he had to side with one in the Sophomore Fillies it would be La Strada. The latter certainly has the right breeding for the sand being by Windrush and Azzie said, “She ran a cracker last time and will be right there.”
Peep Show won her last sand start over the Fillies And Mares Stakes course and distance by a facile 6,75 lengths and is another of the yard’s horses on the day whose merit rating is at the very top of one of the merit-rated bands, which makes her officially relatively well weighted. She is also drawn quite well in five and is 7kg better off with Walking On Air for a 6,8 length defeat over course and distance.
By David Thiselton
Picture: Mike Azzie (Nkosi Hlophe)
