Alec Laird said: “We plan to get her to England in June when she will stay at Mary Slack’s Abington Place stables in Newmarket with me as the trainer.
“We haven’t yet decided whether she should have her prep races in England. France would also be a possibility although America might offer a softer option.
“On the other hand it might make more sense to travel to America with the other UK horses going for the Breeders’ Cup. But we now know that we have the best horse in South Africa to send there.”
True. The daughter of Ideal World didn’t just beat her male opponents, she absolutely slaughtered them, coming right away in the final furlong to put three and a half lengths between herself and Queen’s Plate winner Legal Eagle. The 8-1 chance’s time of 2 min 3.17 sec has been bettered only three times in the last 15 Mets – by Pocket Power in 2007, River Jetez three years later and Martial Eagle in 2013.
Even Laird (also successful with London News 19 years earlier) admitted: “This was beyond my expectations. I was hoping to win but not at as well as that.”
Owner-breeder Jessica Slack added: “I’m blown away. It’s like a fairytale. Grandma (Bridget Oppenheimer) would be really happy.”
JP van der Merwe,25, repeatedly saluting as he began to pull up, did not finally know the ride was his until he landed at Cape Town airport just after 9.00am. Weichong Marwing’s bad back had also cost the sidelined jockey a bonanza pay day in the CTS Million Dollar.
Captain America, who ran on well to take third, is to be aimed at the HF Oppenheimer Horse Chestnut Stakes (April 2) that he won last year. Brett Crawford said: “He won’t go to Durban because the tracks there don’t suit him.”
Fourth-placed Light The Lights will go there, though, with Glen Kotzen saying: “This horse is progressively getting better and our main mission will probably be the Durban July.”
Crawford will, however, send Delma Sherrell’s Gulf Storm who benefitted from first time blinkers to get the best of a blanket finish for the Betting World Cape Flying Championship and give Corne Orffer, 35, his first Grade 1 success.
The Philippi trainer, who also won this with Laisserfaire in 2002, said: “I didn’t put them on before because he used to over-race but, coming back to 1 000m, I felt I had to. I tried them last week and he put up a superb gallop. He will run again at Scottsville where he was second in the Tsogo Sun Horse Sprint last season.”
Brutal Force was beaten only a head and Donovan Dillon reported: “I thought I was going to do it. He ran a hell of a race.” Joey Ramsden added that the four-year-old is likely to stick to sprints.
Carry On Alice (third) led until about 30m out and S’Manga Khumalo said: “She just got tired.” Tevez made up a fair bit of ground to take a close-up fourth – the first four were covered by less than half a length – and Aldo Domeyer reported: “He was comfy most of the way and for a while I thought I might get there but at the end he just stayed on.”
Anton Marcus, last but one on the heavily-backed and disappointing Guiness, was fined R 1 000 for failing to keep straight for the first 200m. The vet could find nothing wrong with Trip Tease (last) but Piere Strydom said his mount coughed.
> Phumelela boss Clyde Basel reported the crowd 15% up on last year.
By Michael Clower
Picture (Liesl King): Smart Call (Anton Marcus up) at the J&B Met gallops
