The Gavin van Zyl-trained R2,5 million Lanzerac Ready To Run Stakes winner Budapest passed his important stalls test yesterday and is on track for the Gr 1 Grand Parade Cape Guineas to be run on December 19 at Kenilworth.

Budapest, who is actually trained by Gavin’s son and assistant Gareth under the new compartmentalised structure of the Van Zyl yard, delayed the start of the Ready To Run Stakes after being stubborn and reluctant to load and consequently had his starting stall certificate withdrawn.

Budapest (Liesl King)

Gareth said he had jumped “very nicely” yesterday and consequently regained his starting stall certificate.

He confirmed that one never quite knew what one would get with this horse in terms of behaviour at the track.

However, he is being given the best preparation possible in this regard, on top of his training for the race, as the renowned “Horse Whisperer” Malan du Toit has been brought in to work with him. Gareth revealed Du Toit would be trying a new strategy next time at the track which he believed would be more effective.

Budapest, an athletic colt by the Mossel Bay-based stallion Lithuanian, is being taken care of in Cape Town by Brett Crawford at the Phillippi training centre.

Gareth will be flying down soon to put in the final touches.

Budapest will be taken for a gallop at Kenilworth on Wednesday this week.

He has drawn wide in 24 out of 29 entries, as opposed to his draw of five in the Lanzerac, so is not going to have it easy.

However, Gareth was not overly concerned and believed due to his fine gatespeed and handy racing style he would have a better chance of overcoming the draw than most horses would.

Budapest is the only Van Zyl-trained horse down in the Cape at present, although a long-time inmate from the yard, No Worries, will be trained for the Cape Summer Of Champions Season by Glen Kotzen before being returning to his Van Zyl Summerveld base.

No Worries (Nkosi Hlophe)

No Worries’ original aim had been the Gr 1 L’Ormarin’s Queen’s Plate, but Kotzen has changed course and will run him first in the Listed Jet Master Stakes over 1600m on December 19, then the Gr 2 Peninsula Handicap over 1800m on Queen’s Plate day January 9 before having a tilt at the J&B Met.

Kotzen is coming off a second-place finish with the Var filly Our Destiny in the Gr 1 WSB Cape Fillies Guineas. She proved what the yard had thought of her and cocked a snoot at both pundits, who didn’t give her the time of day before the race, and punters who allowed her to jump at odds of 100/1. Kotzen also pointed out she would likely have finished closer had she not been so green.

Kotzen has as high a regard for the Cape Fillies Guineas winner Silver Mountain as the rest of the racing fraternity do, and reckoned this star in the making looked likely to run in the Gr 1 Grand Parade Cape Guineas on December 19, considering her draw of two, before taking in the CTS Million Dollar on January 23. He believed this could open up the way for three-year-olds to have a chance in the Gr 1 Klawervlei Majorca Stakes, which is also to be run on January 23.

Kotzen does not share the popular opinion that the three-year-old fillies crop is overall a weak one, besides the obvious exception of Silver Mountain, and pointed to Princess Royal running less than a length behind the best female sprinter in the country, Carry On Alice, in Saturday’s Gr 2 WSB Southern Cross Stakes over 1000m.

By David Thiselton

Futura has been installed 22-10 favourite by World Sports Betting to become the first dual winner of the J & B Met since Pocket Power eight seasons ago.

Legislate, scratched from last year’s race because of a virus, is second favourite at 4-1 jointly with Sean Tarry’s SA Derby winner Legal Eagle. French Navy, who took the SA Classic and Daily News for Tarry, is next at 6-1 while the Brett Crawford-trained Horse Chestnut winner Captain America is on 8-1.

Master Sabina and Deo Juvente, first and second in the Sansui Summer Cup for Geoff Woodruff, are on 14-1 as is Bouclette Top. Paterfamilias and Same Jurisdiction are on 16-1 and it’s 20-1 and upwards others.

By Michael Clower

South African champion Gavin Lerena has a smart book of rides, according to local reporters, for the prestigious Longines International Jockeys’ Championship at Happy Valley (Hong Kong) on Wednesday night.

But it was In-form jockey Brett Prebble that expressed the most confidence after the allocation of rides and draws. After collecting the mounts on One Of A Kind, Strathearn, Jolly Posh and Ruby Coast, Prebble said: “We all know what Happy Valley is like and you can get the right horse but the wrong barrier and it makes it hard, but I think I’ve pulled some horses with serious winning chances and three of them have drawn inside gates,” he grinned. “I reckon I’m hard to beat.”

Gavin Lerena

Prebble’s take was a change on the usual, but three-time IJC winner Douglas Whyte was going in the other direction, singing from his preferred hymn sheet. “Someone will win it, but I don’t think it’s me,” he said after Business As Usual, The Sylph, King Of Household and Winnam were allocated to the South African who rides, like Prebble, Joao Moreira and Derek Leung Ka-chun, under the Hong Kong flag.

But another South African, Gavin Lerena, having his first shot at the series, looked to be a real contender after picking up the rides, if not the barrier draws.

Lerena’s first is a query mount, John Moore’s dirt specialist Happy Moments switching to the Valley for the first time, but Noble De Man, Mr Right and Superoi all look frontline chances in the last three legs, though all have drawn the Chinese lucky number barrier, eight. Mr Right and Superoi will even carry the saddlecloth number eight.

But, in a field containing only Whyte, Moreira and Moore who have won the series previously, there were cases being made for a number of different riders, including American Pharoah’s rider Victor Espinoza – second at his only previous appearance – and of course, Moreira.

The Magic Man pulled rides in the last two legs on which he already has a great record – Call Me Achiever, three rides for a win and two seconds, and Sparkling Sword, five rides for three wins.

Moreira was also allocated a likely improver in leg one, Entrusting. In the second leg he rides Valley winner, Addole, resuming for the season.

With jockeys scoring 12 points for a series leg win, six for second and four for third, winning a leg is an absolute must and having at least two good mounts looks essential to being a chance for the HK$500,000 first prize.

Since the series went to four legs in 2010 in an effort to prevent another triple dead-heat like the 2009 result, the magic number has been 24 points.

Ryan Moore (2010), Moreira (2012) and Yuichi Fukunaga (2014) all won with 24 points; 2011 winner Frankie Dettori (30) and 2013 winner Kerrin McEvoy (18) were the exceptions.

–          South China Morning Post (Alan Aitken)

Silver Mountain has the enormous riches of the CTS Million Dollar (R14.3 million) in her sights after annihilating the opposition in the World Sports Betting Cape Fillies Guineas and in the meantime she could also take on the colts in Saturday week’s Grand Parade Cape Guineas.

Candice Robinson opened up the fascinating prospect of the latter option, saying: “It’s a possibility. She has a great draw (2) and there is nothing else for her before the Million Dollar. We will discuss it.”

Sadly Mike Bass did not feel well enough to come and watch his fourth Fillies Guineas triumph – one that so emphatically put an end to his run of three successive seconds – but wife Carol said: “I think this could be the best filly we have ever had.”

Silver Mountain (Kenilworth Racing)

Certainly the daughter of Silvano provided a notable highlight in the annals of two famous Robertson studs – the Mike Sharkey-managed Highlands which bred her and Andreas Jacobs’ Maine Chance which bought her for R1.3 million.

But, perhaps above all, it was a triumph for Aldo Domeyer who buried the demons that threatened to destroy him. Watching him repeatedly, and professionally, looking back to his left as he sought to get into a position without murdering the opposition, it was hard to believe he had been feeling under severe pressure ever since the Choice Carriers four weeks earlier.

“There was a lot at stake for me and I’d been having sleepless nights,” he revealed. “I’d also been struggling to eat and drink and I lost so much weight as a result.”

He turned to religion and there, apparently, he found salvation – “I prayed and prayed, and that gave me the sense of calmness I was looking for.”

He certainly had it when he turned for home – “It was then just a question of choosing the gap and, when I did, she kept extending away from them while I was looking at the big screen waiting for Bela-Bela. But she didn’t come and, even if she had, my filly had too many answers.”

Seemingly the nerves are now dead and buried and not even the prospect of collecting a R600 000 percentage on January 23 is going to bring them back: “All the money in the world couldn’t bring me more happiness and satisfaction than winning this Fillies Guineas.”

Discussions on future plans will also take place between Glen Kotzen and his former bosses Ralph and Val Rixon following 100-1 chance Our Destiny’s second, albeit five lengths back. “She is bred to be a sprinter,” said a beaming Kotzen. “But I’m jumping with excitement. Everybody kept saying ’why are you running her?’”

The Bass team also has to decide on plans for third-placed Taffety Tart (Grant van Niekerk: “Again no excuses”) while Anglet, a neck away fourth, would have finished a whole lot closer had Raymond Danielson not been forced to ease to avoid Gareth Wright. He was unshipped near the 1 000m mark as Valediction was squeezed and clipped Silver Mountain’s heels.

Indeed this was why Domeyer couldn’t find Bela-Bela (fifth) on the big screen. “Valediction fell in front of me,” reported Piere Strydom who won the last two races for Justin Snaith. “Maybe I would have finished second but the winner was way too good.”

Anton Marcus on seventh-placed A Time To Dream also had a hard luck story, saying: “My saddle slipped back and I wasn’t fully able to assist her.”

Noor was a big disappointment for the many punters who seized on her as if she was the equine equivalent of the money-blowing machine that so fascinated racegoers. Her price plunged from 9-1 to 28-10, pushing the favourite out from 5-10 to 9-10. She finished sixth.

Anthony Delpech said: “Maybe that is as good as she is but it was her first time against top fillies.”

Flying Ice (eighth) returned fatigued and, while the vets could find nothing wrong, Sean Cormack reported that something was amiss with Well In Flight (ninth).

By Michael Clower

Joey Ramsden and Wayne Kieswetter’s Ridgemont Stud operation have unexpectedly split and as a result 14 horses have left, or are about to leave, the Milnerton trainer’s yard.

The first intimation that something was wrong came shortly after 11.00am on Friday when Ramsden’s assistant Ricardo Sobotker scratched Icy Fire from the Fillies Guineas, citing ”change of stable” and leaving the sought-after Bernard Fayd’Herbe twiddling his thumbs in frustration in the jockeys’ room.

Joey Ramsden (Kenilworth Racing)

Ridgemont manager Craig Carey said on Saturday: “It’s an amicable departure and there is no animosity on our side. Joey told us that he did not want to train for us anymore.

“I think Icy Fire would have run a very good race in the Fillies Guineas but in the circumstances we didn’t think it was the right thing to run her. Who will train her in future will be finalised this week but it is likely to be Brett Crawford. He will get a percentage of the horses, some will go to Mike Bass and some to Ormond Ferraris.”

Ramsden would not comment, except to say: “I think Wayne is a superstar but other than that I don’t want to talk about it.”

Drinks magnate Kieswetter – he is the boss of Magnum and part-owner of a successful Scottish whisky distillery – has spent a small fortune buying fillies to form the basis for his breeding operation and has taken first retainers on both Fayd’Herbe and Greg Cheyne.

He sent his best horse so far, the Ramsden-trained Cold As Ice (part-owned by Brian Finch), to England to be trained by William Haggas and even forked out for Fayd’Herbe to fly over and ride her.

The businessman and Ramsden seemed to have a perfect relationship, the trainer going to Australia to buy fillies for the operation and Kieswetter helicoptering Ramsden around the studs for pre-sales inspections. Ramsden had long been a close friend of Carey.

By Michael Clower