David Thiselton

THE Sean Tarry-trained Cornish Pomodoro stamped himself as a Summer Cup contender after a good win over 1600m at the Vaal Classic track yesterday in his first  run as a gelding and his rider Lyle Hewitson’s four-timer on the day took him seven winners clear at the top of the national jockeys log. 

Pack Leader also ran well in defeat in his first start for new trainer Alec Laird having had his winning chances ruined by a wayward Date Palm. 

Cornish Pomodoro, who carried 57kg as a one-time winner in the Graduation Plate event, did not have cover throughout the race in a one out and one back position. He loped along in the straight at one pace which was enough to haul in the leader Hellofaride and take the lead at the 300m mark. However, at that stage he looked to be under threat from Imperial Master and Pack Leader who had closed in to be about a length back. However, then came the impressive part. Hewitson gave him a right-handed slap and he immediately changed legs and lengthened his stride superbly. He surged away from the challengers to win by four lengths from Imperial Master, who beat Pack Leader by a short-head.

The rangy four-year-old gave the impression he would enjoy the 2000m of the Summer Cup and he should also come on a ton from this race. On pedigree he should easily get the Summer Cup trip as he is by Vodacom Durban July winner Pomodoro out of a Casey Tibbs mare called Splinter who won over 1800m and finished second in the Grade 3 Final Fling Stakes over 1800m.  

Pack Leader’s run was just as impressive.

In a bizarre incident at the beginning of the race Date Palm refused to take the turn and carried Pack Leader right out to the outside rail. 

Pack Leader had to be eased virtually to a standstill so he could be switched inward to be free of the badly behaved horse. 

This cost him at least ten lengths and on top of that he had to give the winner 3kg so to finish just 4,05 lengths back was a fine effort.

The other aspect that gives the winner merit is that the fourth-placed horse Hellofaride was beaten nine lengths and the fifth-placed horse, the 97 rated Indy Go, was beaten 10,75 lengths.

Cornish Pomodoro is 50/1 for the Summer Cup with Track And Ball and Pack Leader is 36-1. Hellofaride drifted out to 100/1.

Date Palm has been suspended indefinitely by the stipendiary stewards.

A race earlier Tarry, Hewitson and Pomodoro had combined to win a Graduation Plate for fillies and mares over 1600m with the grey four-year-old Invisible. She was also caught one wide and back but that did not stop her pulling away from them in the straight. However, in the end she only hung on by 0,30 lengths from a fast-finishing Louis Gem, who put in a fine performance considering she is a three-year-old who was receiving just 1,5kg from Invisible and it was also just her second career start. 

The only Summer Cup entry involved in this race, Keep Smiling, was a 4,75 length fourth and Track And Ball have her at 50/1.   

Hewitson also rode a double for St. John Gray on the day and at close of play had ridden 38 winners for the season, seven clear of the joint-second placed Greg Cheyne and S’Manga Khumalo.  

Earlier, the Mike Azzie-trained seven-year-old Var gelding Rivarine proved his Grade 1 Computaform Sprint victory was no fluke when pulling clear to win a Pinnacle Stakes event over 1000m by 1,50 lengths despite shouldering 62kg. His previous two runs, over 1160m and 1450m, saw him overreaching in the first of them and over-racing in both behind a pace which was too slow for his liking. Yesterday, with his Computaform Sprint rider Devin Habib aboard he relished the step back to 1000m, meaning he could stride out towards the back behind a fast enough pace and he then simply sauntered past them in the closing stages to win in the commanding style one would expect of a Grade 1 winner. He still has a lot of racing in him.    

David Thiselton

THE current leaders of the three-year-old male and female crops, Mount Pleasant and Anything Goes respectively, both won Grade 2s over 1450m at the Turffontein Inside course on Saturday and according to the sectional times provided by statistician Jay August there is little between them, although the handicappers in giving Mount Pleasant a merit rating of 127 currently rate him a full seven points higher than the filly.

August prefaced his figures by saying, “Both races were as close to true run races as possible and both winners ran as close to efficiently as was possible. The main difference was the filly got a faster pace objective up front than the colt and was also ridden out to a higher degree than the colt.”

The Grade 2 Spring Fillies and Mares Challenge was run at a fair clip and the leader Mil Queen reached the 1000m mark in approximately 26,70 seconds.  Anything Goes went past the 1000m mark in 27.03 seconds. Those two times in Mount Pleasant’s race, with Cirillo given an easy lead, were 26.69 and 27.29 respectively.

Anything Goes reached the 400m mark in 64.56 seconds while Mount Peasant reached it in 64.65 seconds.

The next sectional from the 400m to the 200m mark is the telling one as Anything Goes ran it in 11.87 seconds compared to the 12.01 of Mount Pleasant.

That suggests she accelerated slightly better, , although on the other hand she had the advantage of coming off a slightly better pace.

She also ran the final two 100m sections slightly quicker than Mount Pleasant, 4,97 and 6,86 seconds compared to 5,05 and 6,89 seconds.

Their relatively slow final 100m times would surprise a few but is in fact normal.

Although the winners often appear to be “flying” they are invariably just slowing down at a lesser rate than the horses they are beating.

These times are all approximate but show Anything Goes to have run the race at an average of 6.09 seconds per 100m compared to the 6.11 of Mount Pleasant.

Both horses produced impressive finishing speed.

Anything Goes finishing speed over the final 400m was 102.7% compared to her time for the rest of the race, while Mount Pleasant’s figure was 102.1%.

A figure of 100% is considered efficient on a flat bowl with a running start, so 102.7% with a standing start is about as efficient as one can get considering there is a steep incline at Turffontein on the turn.

The handicappers do not take time into account but rather a performance relative to others in the race.

They gave Mount Pleasant the higher rating after making the fit course and distance specialist Zouaves the line horse. Mount Pleasant faced this 116 merit rated horse on 1kg worse than weight for age terms and beat him by 4,40 lengths.

The line horse in Anything Goes’ race was the consistent Magic School. She faced this 110 merit rated horse on 2kg worse than weight for age terms and beat her by three lengths.

Anything Goes carried 53,5kg compared to Mount Pleasant’s 51kg, which adds to the merit of her sectional times.

On her side was that she had last run five weeks earlier, whereas Mount Pleasant was coming off a 14 week break.

On pedigree it is difficult to say how much further the two horses will go.

Anything Goes is by the speed influence Var out of a half-sister to the champion miler Capetown Noir, but her damsire Parade Leader  provides some stamina.

Mount Pleasant is by the precocious speedster Vancouver, who won three sprints as a juvenile including the Group 1 Golden Slipper and he was being prepared for a sprint campaign in Ireland and Britain before being retired. Mount Pleasant’s one-time winning dam is by Fastnet Rock, a speedster who, like Danehill, is described as a stallion who has the capacity to produce individuals who can race effectively and produce speed at some point in a race. However, his dam is a half-sister to two horses who respectively won the Group 1 Australasian Oaks over 2000m and the Group 1 Australian Oaks over 2400m.

August concluded by saying, “Mount Pleasant was presented with a slower pace objective and easily passed that test. The question is what would he have done with a steeper pace? We don’t know but given whom he beat it is assumed he would have passed it as well. But that is the problem with handicapping. It is an offset against a known quantity irrespective of the pace or time of the race.”

August also pointed out another problem with handicapping at this time of the year was the large weight for age differential between three-year-olds and older horses. He said there was no way of knowing whether Anything Goes was more mature or less mature than Mount Pleasant and thus ahead of or behind the weight for age curve.

Andrew Harrison

ANTON MARCUS has had a forest fire of smoke blown up his rear over the years. Proven against the best on the international stage, there is little doubt that he is a master of his trade.

To many of the uninitiated that follow the sport, the simple task of a jockey is to stay on board and ride for the line as hard as possible, win lose or draw.

But as in any sport, the best will always triumph simply because they are more tactically aware.

Few will argue that the pace of a race will make the world of difference to the result. But often, subtle tactics employed by the top riders within a race are the difference between winning and losing.

Riders who can win races on mediocre mounts, races that their horse should never have had a chance in given the form, are the riders that trainers look for and support. Riders who are tactically astute and aware of the capabilities of the opposition.

There are also trainers who expect more from their charges than what they are capable of producing – the classic line from a jockey when asked by a trainer why he did not follow instructions; “unfortunately I had to bring the horse with me.”

But back to the second race at Hollywoodbets Greyville yesterday. Marcus was aboard favourite Chapter And Verse for trainer Michael Roberts, himself a former titan of the pigskin. The money arrived late for Garth Puller’s charge Banzai Pipeline but Marcus will have worked that out a long time before the race.

All went well for both runners, both perfectly placed, Marcus up second tracked by Lyle Hewitson on Banzi Pipeline.

Shortly before entering the straight, Marcus eased wide off the heels of pacemaker Luxemburg, headed for his favourite ‘golden highway’ up the outside fence.

But with Bazai Pipline slipping through up the inside fence, Marcus allowed his mount to shift in on some tiring horses in the hope that they would force Hewitson to delay his challenge for a few strides.

The ploy didn’t work, given that the horses on Marcus’s inside were not intimidated, allowing Banzai Pipeline a clear passage. But it was a clever piece of riding by Marcus who, seeing that his ploy had failed, drifted out onto his ‘highway’ and kept the favourite running to the line, proving just that fraction better than his market rival.

Andrew Harrison

THERE is little doubt that the introduction of the Merit Rating system of handicapping has had a profound effect on racing in this country. In its purest form it has its merits but I would argue that the local horse population is not big enough for the system to work effectively.

This is proven by the introduction of a myriad of special dispensations for various categories of races, introduced in reaction to try and plug frailties in the system. This, to a point where many trainers and, more importantly the majority of punters, are left guessing.

Jack’s Bird, a winner of one race and two placings from nine starts finds herself giving weight to all in the Greyville Convention Centre Handicap that heads the card on the poly at Hollywoodbets Greyville on Wednesday.

Michael Roberts’s filly has paid dearly for finishing close-up in weak feature company. She was on her way down the ratings from a high mark of 100 before the KZN Fillies Guineas where she finished 3,6 lengths behind Missisippi Burning. But her sixth place shunted her back up five pounds from her 90-rating going into the Guineas without earning a cent.

In other jurisdictions that use the MR system, horses capable of performing in Graded company seldom run in handicaps.

So, this race will be a test. After the Guineas, Jack’s Bird was given a break where she finished nearly five lengths back in a 1200m sprint. That should have brought her along nicely into this 1600m event and from a good draw, Roberts and her supporters will be hoping that the handicappers have it right.

One of the major complaints of the current MR system is that a horse like four-time winner Song Of The Forest, has earned R200k more than Jack’s Bird but has a MR of 81. With Jabu Jacobs claiming his 2.5kg allowance on Brett Crawford’s filly, Jacks Bird will be conceding 8.5kg to her rival that has been in cracking form of late.

In a leap of faith, Jack’s Bird is taken to get the better of Song Of The Forest, but with no confidence.

David Thiselton

THE MIKE DE KOCK-TRAINED Barak proved himself a promising stayer when fighting back to win a Pinnacle Stakes event over 2 600m at Turffontein Inside on Saturday under lightweight jockey Jarryd Penny. It was his third win on the trot meaning he is unbeaten since blinkers were donned.

This Master Of My Fate gelding has a deep pedigree which includes Vodacom Durban July winner Power King, Summer Cup winner Malteme, Grade 1 Woolavington 2000 winner Wendywood, Grade 1 winner Exhilaration and others but he is a rangy, galloping type with a big action. 

Barak went into the race 8kg under sufferance with former SA Derby winner Hero’s Honour according to official merit ratings.

However, he did only have to carry a featherweight 50kg.

Furthermore, he had impressed as a progressive stayer in his previous start and duly started 15-4 favourite. 

The race did not pan out well for him, which adds merit to the win.

Penny decided to drive him up into a handy position from the off and this might have been due to the theory that light weighted horses should be up there over marathon trips to ensure the top-weights are made to carry their welter burdens. 

On this occasion being handy early proved to be costly. 

The big horse took held of the bit but Penny did manage to have him covered in second place. He maintained his rail position but by the time they had reached the final turn he had been shuffled back into midfield. He then had to go around The Bosbok, who had gone wrong.

Ultimately, he turned for home right near the back of the eight horse field, meaning the early exertions might well have been unnecessary.

He was now going to have to prove himself some horse to find the necessary extra to make up the leeway.

He did so but then came under threat from the other bottom weight in the contest, Gold Griffin, although the latter was carrying 1kg overweight under national champion jockey Warren Kennedy.

Barak responded magnificently to Penny’s urgings and saw off the challenge to win by a quarter of a length.

It is not unusual for South Africans stayers to build up a sequence before being found out when they run in features, but Barak looks to have plenty of scope for further improvement and De Kock must be thinking of races like the WSB Gold Cup already.

Barak is out of the Captain Al mare Bermuda Sloop, whose five wins were from 1500m to 2000m. He was purchased for R360,000 at the National Yearling Sales by Jehan Malherbe’s Form Bloodstock and is owned by De Kock together with Malherbe’s wife Noeline and G Ragunan.

Besides Power King and Malteme, who also won the Grade 2 Gold Circle Derby over 2400m, other stamina horses in his pedigree include Power King’s half-brother Northern Land (Badger Land), who won the Grade 3 Cape Summer Stayers over 2500m, Listed Oaks Trial winner Bize and Sammy Jo, who won the Listed East Cape Oaks.