Brett Crawford won the Rising Sun Gold Challenge on Saturday for the second year in succession but the winner Undercover Agent had to share centre stage on the day with the Justin Snaith-trained African Night Sky who shortened to cramped odds for the Vodacom Durban July after an ultra-impressive win in the Grade 3 Cup Trial over 1800m.
Undercover Agent (Candiese Marnewick)
Crawford pointed out last week the three-year-old Captain Al colt Undercover Agent was one of the only horses in the field with improvement still in him and the classy individual duly gave apprentice Lyle Hewitson his first Grade 1 victory. Hewitson has smashed record after record since joining the apprentice ranks in March 2016 and has ensured a record he would not have wanted is no longer a possibility, i.e. the first jockey to be crowned South African champion jockey while still being Grade 1 winless. Hewitson was 23 winners clear of Muzi Yeni in the race for the title after Saturday’s meeting.
The surprise of the Gold Challenge was the tactics of Snowdance, who usually leads at a strong pace and then kicks on. This time she was held up by Grant van Niekerk and the other jockeys had to throw their pre-race plans out of the window. It also led to a crawl in the early stages and Undercover Agent was a touch strong on the bit. Thankfully his stablemate Captain America, who won last year, soon took over the lead and then went at a comfortable clip. This allowed Undercover Agent to use his action in the box seat and he was running on the right foot this time, unlike in the Drill Hall Stakes when narrowly defeated. Nevertheless, the race culminated in a sprint for home. Captain America went down the inside rail and Undercover Agent made his run down the centre. Snowdance and Sail South chased them. Captain America’s lack of a preparation race told in the final 150m as he began to tire, but the other three maintained their positions to the line, which underlined the slowness of the first quarter. It opened the question whether the Snowdance tactics were wrong, although she still finished a fine half-a-length second.
Earlier, African Night Sky became electrified when hitting the straight in the Grade 3 Cup Trial over 1800m and from last place scythed through the field to beat Crowd Pleaser by 0,75 lengths. Platinum Prince was a neck away in third followed 1,5 lengths further back by Sledgehammer winner Head Honcho.
African Night Sky, a four-year-old Dynasty gelding, has looked well handicapped ahead of the July. He escaped a merit rated raise when finishing a two length sixth in the Sun Met because a new rule stated only the first five in a Grade 1 race can be raised. Therefore the handicappers will likely be itching to give him as hefty a raise as possible. They will be justified in using fourth-placed Head Honcho, whom he beat by 2,4 lengths. They could thus give African Night Sky a five point raise. That will take him up to 113. In that case, if the top merit rated horse Coral Fever (118) runs, then African Night Sky will carry 57,5kg.
Crowd Pleaser and Platinum Prince’s connections will have anxious moments wondering whether there charges will get into the July, while Head Honcho and fifth-placed Wild Wicket might not have done enough.
In the Gold Challenge both July entries Gold Standard and Roy Had Enough caught the eye staying on well for fifth and sixth respectively and put their hands up for a place in the final field.
By David Thiselton
