Brett Crawford, asked when the horse is to go into quarantine, said yesterday: “I have heard nothing but normally the plane taking horses to Hong Kong doesn’t leave until after the Met. However my understanding is that once this horse has been paid for he won’t be running in South Africa again and the money is due to be paid this week.”
Edict Of Nantes (Liesl King)
The colt won the Cape Derby and Daily News in the colours of Markus Jooste’s Mayfair Speculators and unconfirmed website reports put the price at just under R10 million. He is expected to join Tony Millard.
Edict Of Nantes was originally second favourite for both the Queen’s Plate and the Met but World Sports Betting, who took him out of its prices for Saturday week’s race, are now not quoting him for the Met either. Betting World has yet to price up the Queen’s Plate and has suspended its Met market since well before Christmas.
The sale is tough on Crawford as it is the second time in three seasons that he has had his best horse taken away. With Futura it was because the owners fell out.
But the in-form Philippi trainer is already planning a trip to Dubai to map out and manage a Carnival campaign for last season’s Met winner Whisky Baron.
He said: “The horse is now going to start prepping and we will soon put him back on the grass. I go out there on the Monday after the Queen’s Plate and, when I see how he is, I will sit down and work out a programme. There are two races for him in March, the Jebel Ali and a race on World Cup night if he proves good enough. I will also try and find a race for him to start off in before March.”
Elusive Heart, the only horse ever to have beaten Fillies Guineas winner Snowdance, is to stick to 1 200 and 1 400m for the time being after galloping the opposition into the ground in the Betting World Progress Plate at Kenilworth yesterday. She was beaten more than seven lengths when seventh in the Fillies Guineas.
Glen Kotzen said: “She may go for the Vasco Prix Du Cap over 1 400m here on 24 February and the Daisy Guineas in May might also suit with its short Greyville straight, provided she gets a draw – she has seldom seemed to crack a decent one in the past.”
The decision to switch the New Year’s Day meeting from Kenilworth to Durbanville has not proved popular with some trainers and there will be a total of only 52 runners for the eight races.
But Phumelela boss Clyde Basel explained: “We felt that we should give the Kenilworth racing surface some relief with the two-day Queen’s Plate meeting coming up. The alternative would have meant using the same course for three days out of six.
“We are taking advantage of the switch to invite the public to picnic and braai at Durbanville. This has proved extremely popular there in the past.”
By Michael Clower
