“It’s going to be a great race,” enthuses Glen Kotzen whose Double Whammy is the only Graded winner in the field and who led throughout to gamely shrug aside all challengers in last month’s Lanzerac Diana.
Indeed the quality of the line-up has persuaded him to change his plans, particularly with the filly being faced with the worst of the draw. “We are going to have to ride her forward. We were going to tuck her in but I don’t think we should do that now.”
Double Whammy is officially rated just over two lengths better than Cold As Ice but the latter was having her first race when the two met three months ago and the way she won a 1 200m handicap last week suggests she is the one they all have to beat – even over this extra furlong.
Her dam Viva won seven races including the Champagne but nothing beyond 1 200m and, according to Kotzen who trained her, she was an out-and-out sprinter.
“I think Cold As Ice will be alright over 1 400m,” says Joey Ramsden. “Indeed I’m not worried about the trip although I might be over a mile.”
Jet Set Go is the only unbeaten horse in the field and she won the last of her three starts with ease over the trip at Durbanville last month. So, can she beat the other two? “Wait and see on Saturday,” was all I could get out of a smiling Vaughan Marshall, seemingly intent on playing his cards close to his chest.
The bookmakers, though, believe he doesn’t hold the ace and Betting World yesterday opened his filly at 3-1. Double Whammy is second favourite at 5-2 and Cold As Ice heads the market at 18-10. It’s worth noting that favourites have won all the last four runnings and six of the last seven.
Justin Snaith has won this four times in the last seven seasons and is rueing the knee-breaking injury suffered by Red Disa who he is convinced was so good that she worked with In The Fast Lane. Instead he is putting blinkers on three-time winner Harvard Crimson (12-1).
“She takes a bit of a ride and you can’t be sitting there pushing your horse along in a race like this,” he explains. “But it’s going to be tough.”
The highest-rated horse is Grey Light who was odds-on when beaten by the year older Acrostar on her return 13 days ago and is surprisingly short at 4-1 here. “She didn’t receive the full weight-for-age allowance and I wasn’t that disappointed,” says Ramsden. “But this is way too short for her.”
Stable companion Thaler Point (40-1) is there in the hope of picking up black type and Grant van Niekerk has chosen 16-1 chance Inara from Mike Bass’s three. But their trainer says: “Mine are more milers and I will be surprised if I win this.”
Dancing Natasha has been scratched as she gave a couple of coughs after working yesterday. “Disappointing,” says Alan Greeff. “I thought she was capable of running into the money.”
So which will it be? Pedigree and ratings are against Cold As Ice and the favourite sequence must be getting ominously close to breaking point but, even so, Bernard Fayd’Herbe’s mount still looks the one.
Picture: Double Whammy (Liesl King)
