Glen Kotzen is eyeing the Cape Derby-Durban July double that he pulled off with Big City Life nine years ago for Eyes Wide Open after Hugo Hattings’ Dynasty colt ran out a convincing winner of the Investec-sponsored classic at Kenilworth on Saturday.
Kotzen had no regrets about abandoning his original plan of going for the Met with the Peninsula Handicap winner, recalling: “I told Anthony Andrews that he would keep the ride in the Met but then I looked at the pedigree and saw the colt was a 26 November foal. I thought ‘Am I made or what? We must wait until next year for the Met.’”
Richard Fourie, who also won this on Legislate in 2014 and on Russian Sage six years earlier, was fined R1 500 for celebrating victory before the line but it made barely a dent in his R 56,250 percentage. Punters felt the disappointing run of 61-20 favourite Tap O’Noth far more.
Eyes Wide Open (Candiese Marnewick)
The course vet could find nothing wrong but MJ Byleveld said: “I couldn’t fault the horse in his work and he looked magnificent but in the race he felt a bit lethargic. By the time Richard went I had no horse underneath me.”
Could it have been that respiratory virus that caused Vaughan Marshall to scratch his runners the previous Saturday? “I don’t think so,” answered the trainer. “And it wasn’t the trip. I put it down to just one of those off-days – he was never travelling.”
In the Betting World Cape Flying Championship Tevez caused pandemonium when he jumped the gun. Naafer and Olympian completed the course before they could be pulled up and were promptly scratched while Search Party followed suit after unshipping Fourie on his way back to the restart.
Several of the others were so worked up that they couldn’t run up to their best but Sergeant Hardy was totally unruffled and made much of the running to give Bernard Fayd’Herbe his fourth Cape Flying and Justin Snaith his first. The Captain Al gelding has now earned R1.8 million for Veronica Foulkes and her catering supremo son Oliver despite his wind problems.
Trip To Heaven’s intensive pens tuition saw him get away on terms and finish second. Interestingly, though, he did not finish as close as he had done 12 months ago when he did things the old way, giving away an impossible amount of ground at the off and finishing like the proverbial train.
This is the last year that the winners of the two CTS $500 00 races collect more than the Met winner. In 2019 the races will be priced in Rands, R5 million of them, but the winner will get only 50% compared with 57% in the Met.
Candice Bass Robinson and Grant van Niekerk took the 1200 for the second successive year thanks to Dutch Philip bouncing back to form with a bigger saddle while Undercover Agent fully justified Brett Crawford’s confidence under Corne Orffer in the 1600.
Markus Jooste’s Mayfair Speculators was listed as part-owner of Dutch Philip but the famous emerald green, yellow stars and black-sleeved colours were not seen throughout the day – all part of the no-protest deal with the unions that apparently included the two ‘stipes-permission’ scratchings.
By Michael Clower
