The Mike de Kock-trained runner went on to finish second behind Variety Club in the Cape Guineas and based on merit ratings and draw No 4, will be the horse to beat in this Grade 2 event.

The Gauteng Guineas forms the first leg of the SASCOC Triple Crown. The other two races are the Grade 1 SA Classic to be run over 1800m on Saturday 31 March and the Grade 1 SA Derby over 2450m on Saturday 28 April. There is a R2-million bonus up for grabs for any horse capable of winning all three events.

Also run on the day is the Grade 2 Betting World Fillies Guineas which carries a stakes of R500,000. This race is the first leg of the SA Triple Tiara with the others being the Grade 1 SA Fillies Classic and the Grade 2 SA Oaks. The Triple Tiara carries a bonus of R1-million.
Silver Flyer has a lot going for him but there are two unbeaten runners in the field – Gavin van Zyl-trained Slumdogmillionaire and Red Barrel from the De Kock yard – and they might be a lot better than their merit ratings suggest.

While De Kock has engaged stable jockey Anthony Delpech to ride Silver Flyer, champion jockey Anton Marcus will be aboard Emperors Palace Ready To Run Cup winner Red Barrel.

De Kock and Sean Tarry have four runners apiece in the line-up and each has one reserve runner.  Tarry’s stable jockey Robbie Fradd rides Dingaans runner up Whiteline Fever while Sean Cormack is booked for E-Jet. Tarry is still to finalise riding arrangements for Pomodoro and Heavy Metal.

Zimbabwean entry Control Freak and Tarry’s Hidden Beauty top the ratings for the R500,000 Betting World Gauteng Fillies Guineas but the runners are rated a lot closer than in the Guineas. Tyrone Zackey’s Katy’s Lane won the Grade 3 Fillies Mile last time out but jockey Piere Strydom will have to jump her from draw No 17.     �
�
R1-million BETTING WORLD GAUTENG GUINEAS (Grade 2, Leg 1 SA Triple Crown) 1600m
1 – 4 SILVER FLYER (M F De Kock) A Delpech 58.0 – 112
2 – 18 POTALA PALACE (M G Azzie) G Lerena 58.0 – 105
3 – 1 WHITELINE FEVER (S G Tarry) R Fradd 58.0 – 105
4 – 6 STRAW MARKET (O A Ferraris) R Fourie 58.0 – 103
5 – 12 POMODORO (S G Tarry)  …………… 58.0 – 102
6 – 10 SLUMDOGMILLIONAIRE (G H Van Zyl) M Mienie 58.0 – 100
7 – 5 BROOKS-CLUB (G H Van Zyl) R Simons 58.0 – 97
8 – 11 BEACON FLARE (W H Marwing) W Marwing 58.0 – 96
9 – 17 RED BARREL (M F De Kock) A Marcus 58.0 – 96
10 – 7 TANDRAGEE (G H Van Zyl) P Strydom 58.0 – 96
11 – 15 E-JET (S G Tarry) S Cormack 58.0 – 93
12 – 3 GOLDEN CHATEAU (M F De Kock) D David 58.0 – 93
13 – 16 GOVERNOR GENERAL (M F De Kock) J Geroudis 58.0 – 92
14 – 14 ZAMBUCCA (S Mohideen) S Khumalo 58.0 – 92
15 – 2 HEAVY METAL (S G Tarry)  …………… 58.0 – 89
16 – 8 WAGNER (J A Soma) M Yeni 58.0 – 89
Reserve Runners
17 – 13 BARACAH (S G Tarry)  Reserve 1 58.0 – 90
18 – 9 FRONTINO GOLD (M F De Kock)  Reserve 2 58.0 – 92
Coupled for Pick 6 ONLY: (1, 9, 12, 13, 18); (3, 5, 11, 15, 17); (6, 7, 10).
�
R300,000 BETTING WORLD GAUTENG FILLIES GUINEAS (Grade 2, Leg 1 Leg SA Triple Tiara) 1600m
1 – 4 CONTROL FREAK (A I Harris) G Lerena 58.0 – 101
2 – 7 HIDDEN BEAUTY (S G Tarry) R Fradd 58.0 – 101
3 – 17 KATY’S LANE (T Zackey) P Strydom 58.0 – 99
4 – 15 GO INDIGO (L J Erasmus) S Brown 58.0 – 98
5 – 16 UPTOTHEMOON (W H Marwing) W Marwing 58.0 – 95
6 – 3 BLUROUTE (M F De Kock) A Delpech 58.0 – 94
7 – 14 EXTRA ZERO (S G Tarry) S Cormack 58.0 – 94
8 – 5 AWESOME BEAUTY (K Naidoo) N Juglall 58.0 – 90
9 – 9 SHADOWS IN THE SUN (G H Van Zyl) M Mienie 58.0 – 89
10 – 2 ILHA BELA (M F De Kock) A Marcus 58.0 – 88
11 – 8 MOUNT CARMEL (R R Sage) G Wrogemann 58.0 – 87
12 – 11 MARY’S PRIDE (O A Ferraris) R Fourie 58.0 – 86
13 – 10 SOLARIUM (M G Azzie) F Herholdt 58.0 – 86
14 – 18 KALAMI (R R Sage) S Chambers 58.0 – 85
15 – 12 SALSABEEL (M F De Kock) J Geroudis 58.0 – 85
16 – 13 ROSE GARDEN (D N Stenger) R Simons 58.0 – 81
17 – 1 TRESCO (S G Tarry)  Reserve 1 58.0 – 83
18 – 6 SCHOONER (S G Tarry)  Reserve 2 58.0 – 82
Coupled for Pick 6 ONLY: (2, 7, 17, 18); (6, 10, 15); (11, 14).

It took me a while to decide whether to furnish an explanation of what had happened. I am, however, publishing the article today since I believe it to be in the interest of regular freeracer surfers and those looking for apologies. It’s a worthwhile read too and, in addition to doses of Schedule 7 tablets, writing it was a form of therapy in the wake of my ordeal.

A number of rumours have reached me, some quite amusing, so just to clarify at the onset: I didn’t stick a needle in my arm, I didn’t lose my way on rocks smoked from a ‘Tik’ pipe and I didn’t party with a host Cape Town’s finest Yellowtail in Long Street until the Sunday after the Met. Racing boasts any number of high-profile alcoholics and junkies, so before you point fingers, take note of which side of the waistline you get your own kicks from, sunshine!*

No shortage of action in Long Street! (capetowndaily.com).

I binged on booze, sure, but thankfully mostly in private and close enough to my Cape-based brother and some dear friends who came to my rescue. I was later officially diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder, an illness that caused 40% of disabilities in the US in 2009 – perhaps even higher in SA, especially if you’re involved in horseracing!

The thoroughbred sport has fallen in love with itself here in South Africa, where a privileged few control the game, get to share in its spoils and don’t give a continental about the rest of us, one of the things that drove me over the edge after the Cape Premier Sale on the eve of the 2012 J&B Met.

But I won’t stand accused of an outrage against the system again – I’ve tried hard to behave and have had to fondle some moby to squeeze my way back into some form of remunerated contribution. After all, aren’t those of us who critisize racing’s regime just plain old jealous that we aren’t pulling the strings ourselves?

The thing with depressive illnesses is that if there is one thing you have to do, is take your pills! Skip a day and you’re in shit! As misfortune would have it, I hadn’t brought mine to the Cape and I suffered the results after a week without them. Depression tablets literally soothe the brain and make it run smoothly like motor oil does for an engine. I’ve known this as I was first treated for depression after my exit from a prominent adult magazine back in 1999 and ever since. Notwithstanding, I’d slipped again.

When one loses one incredible high and then re-enters a sport of daily highs and lows, the body’s controller doesn’t always know what to do with itself. Some can handle it, some can’t.

Most every single of my public outbursts against individuals or groups in the last 12 odd years have been linked to spells of alcohol abuse coupled with a failure to take my pills. It was no different this time. A week off my brain’s fix and it started to short-circuit. I could literally feel a zing in the head, a rush of blood coupled with a noise of sorts and a high irritability factor. All that was missing was that dzzzzzzzttttt sound when an electrical circuit shorts, and the puff of smoke that goes along with it.

And so, lying in my Cape Sun hotel room in the early hours of Saturday 28 January, Met morning, I’d finished a few good rounds at the Long Street Cafe and suddenly found myself heaped with plenty of unfinished website work, two sets of unstudied form books, no Tellytrack on the TV Menu and pressing gripes against a system which allows some to live the joys of racing in full while others have to slave away at feeding it with publicity for fuck all in return.

The fact that my columnist Louis Goosen hadn’t filed a report in weeks also knocked me sideways – I felt increasingly left out, sidetracked and alone. I hit the first of two fine bottles of wine left in J&B’s annual gift bag, pushed on through the work, half-pissed, and finished at 2pm, fully pissed now and not able to pay R200 for a late taxi to Kenilworth.

With the grey matter now properly in a tumble-drying twist, this prompted a new grudge against the world and I relieved myself merrily on twitter, facebook and freeracer, having a go at one and all, including new irritations as the day progressed and the hotel finally switched Tellytrack on.

Apologies here to Louis Goosen, not for taking swipes him for his failure to write, but for saying he’s a kak trainer. He is not. And to God, for swearing at him, because it is only by intervention of the divine that I managed to survive the next 10 days.

On Sunday, at my brother’s house, he tried to help with a calming tablet that didn’t go down particularly well with J&B’s second bottle of gift wine. I tried to get my brain to settle by banging my head against a bedroom wall. It took my strong sibling and my friend Andre van Schaik, the Hollander on a visit, to put me in a strait jacket of arms and knock me into sleeping shape.

With Andrew Fortune, in the Karl Bremer Hospital.

Monday, 30 January, and having taken stock of the weekend’s activities I asked to be committed to an institution for help, as things were getting worse. Ten days off depression pills invariably bring suicidal notions which were now rife. My bro’ carted me to a doctor for a referral, then to Karl Bremer Hospital in Bellville where three security guards stopped me from jumping in front of a fast-moving 4×4 on Jip de Jager Road at the entrance.

The control panel was now officially in ‘tilt’ and I was sedated here for two days before being moved to a rehabilitation centre, a real-life madhouse where my ‘voluntary admission’’ had changed to ‘involuntary’ and I was admitted to the “Acute Male Ward”.

I had a discussion with this hospital’s MD much later, he pointed out that the media had fuelled the bad image of mental hospitals in movies like Psycho 1 and 2, One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest and so on.

To be 100% fair, the attention and care given to patients here is extraordinarily good, but it doesn’t change the fact that most of the people who occupy the premisies are way out whacky, as I discovered when I entered Ward 5.

The duty officials take everything, including your phone and shoe laces, and get you comfy in a set of cotton pyjamas. Down to the bare minimum, I entered the courtyard of this ward and was met by roughly 30 other men aged between 18 and 60. I was the only ‘whitey’on the block and stood out immediately. It was impossible to ‘blend in’, and my only redeeming trait was a few Dunhill cigarettes allowed in – a brand in high demand among Chicago’s, Embasssy Filters and Royals, handed out just after pills, to everyone, three times a day.

Thanks here to the Rupert family who I am sure still own the Dunhill Brand – your top quality smokes endeared me to the most dangerous in my ward, one of whom even helped me with the arduous task of making my bed, army-style, after the 530am wake-up call and shower drill every day.

Racism is not the issue at all, but there is something decidedly awkward about getting shoved in a shower with black or coloured dudes, five at a time in a narrow chute. The guards on duty give you some Lifebuoy soap, a splash of shampoo a new pair of underpants every day. That’s life in the bin, boy, but it’s hard still, to stand around naked with okes who look like porn star Long Dong Silver when your own resembles a dry flower arrangement by comparison. It’s just not right!

Devin, one of my new acquaintances, pointed out that life in Pollsmoor Prison was better, because you’re left alone for 23 hours a day.  We were in relative luxury here, but surrounded by some of SA’s finest crazy people for 24 hours a day! And what were we? Sane?

Now, again to be fair, I have to say that I met people here that I would go to war with. I spent several days communicating, in turn, with some wonderful individuals, all of whom had left the tracks of life in various strange ways and hadn’t recovered on  narrower pathways.

Among many others,there was Derek, DRC-born, a tall guy who believed he was the “King Of Happiness” and invited all to join him in his quest for continued happiness – perhaps a million times a day; John, a Cape flats gang leader who stitched another inmate on the chin and was thrown into a solitary holding cell; Lottie, who drooled litres of spit on his pyjama top every day; James, who’d wrecked his own sister after a property deal gone wrong; Gatiep, who walked with his neck at a 45 degree angle whilst mumbling inconsistently and Green, a youngster who instisted he was a vampire.

Green told me his fangs had not come out yet because he was a ‘young’ vampire – I didn’t scoff at this because one listens in this place because you are here, and one of them. He said he wanted to write stories like I do and produced a piece of poetry so fine I cried at it.

Post-release, with brother Werner and friend Andre van Schaik.

I was released in due course, humbled and perhaps a finer man than my former self, and reminded of The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born, the 1968 novel by Ayi Kwei Armah, who writes: “… everyone before him had crawled with hope along the same unending path, dreaming of future days when they would crawl no longer but run if they wanted to run, and fly if the spirit moved them. But along the streets, those who can soon learn to recognize in ordinary faces beings whom the spirit has moved, but who cannot follow where it beckons, so heavy are the small ordinary days of time…”

I’m ok now, haunted still by many faces growing blurrier, because they were met in a blur; vague images and recollections and a measure of fear for days ahead. But I am unlikely to miss my pills again, stronger this time.

There are no guarantees I won’t lapse again, however and, like former champion jockey Andrew Fortune, I have to take things day by day. “For guarantees, you should be going to Old Mutual or Sanlam,” Andrew told me in a 2007 interview after he’d recovered from years of drug abuse.

So it’s on we go, freeracers, to whatever the next day brings!

Thanks to:

-My brother Werner Pretorius and his family.
-Andre van Schaik
-Malan du Toit
-Andrew Fortune
-My own family for their help and understanding in this time.

*Indebted to Murray Head, song lyrics of One Night In Bangkok.
*Certain names have been changed to protect the identity of individuals.
Photos courtesy of Andre van Schaik.

Glen Kotzen said: “If you want to go for an Equus Award you don’t want to be running in Grade 2 races, and so she will also be aimed at the Garden Province Stakes on July day.”

Avontuur manager Pippa Mickleburgh reports that last year’s South African Fillies Sprint winner Val De Ra will run in the Computaform Sprint at Turffontein on April 28 “if all goes well in the meantime and she is 100% perfect on the day.

“After that it’s all up in the air.

“I have spoken to the managers of four of the leading stallions in the world about having her covered and they are all interested.”
Tales Of Bravery’s first race of the Durban season is likely to be the Drill Hall Stakes at Greyville on May 5.

Vaughan Marshall points out that the five-year-old’s performance in the J & B Met was a lot better than his eventual eighth place would suggest.

Marshall said: “He was very unlucky because Igugu pushed him up Gimmethegreenlight’s backside at a crucial stage. But for that he would have finished in the first four.”

The Mauritius Turf Club has approved Maigrot Stables’ request to sign up M.J. Odendaal for the season starting on March 24.
But the former champion is noncommittal about his plans and would only say: “I am enjoying the Cape very much at the moment.”  – Michael Clower, Gold Circle.

Photo: Denis Drier, Alec Forbes and Pippa Mickleburgh.

Last week Summerhill’s Ready To Run supremo, Tarryn Liebenberg, suggested that the catalogue was up there with the best Ready To Run publications of the past, and that is very quickly evident at a glance. There are close relatives to champions Icy Air and Bridal Paths, millionaires Catmandu and Amphitheatre, and Stakes performers Salutation, Ecole Militaire, Nondweni, Coastal Waltz, Similitude, Dignify, J&B Met hero, Angus, Ice Axe, Cape Tango and Poppy, and a number of smart updates from siblings to several of the candidates.

Tarryn Liebenberg. (www.summerhill.co.za).

According to Liebenberg “there’s a lot of talk from the training yards of the first runners by Mullins Bay and Stronghold, which reinforces the presence in the catalogue of Kahal, presently the nation’s fourth leading stallion, and the perennial top-flight performer, Muhtafal. We’ve already witnessed a winner, as well as a sparkling debut performance from a Joey Ramsden first-timer from the progeny of Stronghold, and if anything, our expectations for Mullins Bay’s stock were slightly ahead”. Michael Holmes, who convenes the sale as part of his Horses In Training show, tells us “there’s already solid interest in the Ready To Run, so word of the gallops is already out. There are some exciting prospects in the line-up, and if last year’s sale is anything to go by, there will be real value for those looking for it. Ever since the catalogue hit the street, there’s been a noticeable increase in the bookings of tables at the sale”.

While the Summerhill management are understandably reluctant to single out any individuals, the grapevine is banging a bongo drum with strains that include fillies by Kahal (Lots 26, 36 and 49;) Mullins Bay’s daughters (lot 20,  a three quarter sister to last week’s impressive Gary Alexander winner, Classic Ilusion and lots 34 and 39), two by Muhtafal (lots 11 and 21) and two very well related Stronghold fillies (lot 22 and 44). The appropriately named Kahal colts, Fly First Class (lot 18) and No Worries (lot 31,) and the Ravishing filly (lot 45) look particularly smart on the Summerhill website (www.summerhill.co.za) and click the Sales tab and then Ready To Run. 

The truth though, lies in their performances at the gallops, and for our money, there’s plenty more to this draft that the grapevine can cope with.

Please contact Michael Holmes Bloodstock and ask for Edwina (031 309 5522) or Megan Romeyn on 083 601 5242. Table bookings on a first-come, first-served basis.

The 34^th renewal of the Western Cape’s flagship race under the bright yellow-and-red whiskey label turned truly sensational. It brought hundreds of thousands of racing fanatics to tears – Igugu’s connections, a festive feature-race crowd at Kenilworth and racing fanatics around the country glued to their television sets in anticipation of the high drama and riveting passion that only a classic thoroughbred contest is able to deliver.

Igugu had to draw on every inch of her naturally noble composure and her vast talent to bring to an end a month marred by her illness , a far-from-ideal-preparation, an 18-hour road trip to Cape Town and her near-isolation in quarantine in the days leading to the race.  She secured victory in a nailbiter that made this testing ordeal  change in seconds  from bitter to sugary sweet  for Mike de Kock and his team,  owners Sheikh Mohammed bin Khalifa Al Maktoun and Andre and Joyce Macdonald, and the filly’s big band of supporters across the land.

Anthony Delpech (with Nico Kritsiotis). Great rider, great joy!

For 1900m of Saturday’s 2000m spectacle, Igugu could not possibly win. She looked lacklustre and was covered in patches of sweat;  she jumped slowly from the pens, was shuffled around into a position where she would be intimidated by the colts and geldings around her, had to switch out for a run and came off the bit and under pressure with three lengths to find and not much left of the home straight – the best of her male rivals going great guns ahead of her.

 For several painful moments, jockey Anthony Delpech looked really lonely out there. One could sense his frustration as he tried to coax his mount to change gears, to deliver the special turn of foot she is so capable of, despite the factors against her.  Strong hands-and-heels at first, Delpech didn’t want to punish Igugu unnecessarily. If she was to go “out the back door”, she was to do so without getting an undue hiding.

Going into the last 400m, race caller Jehan Malherbe sounded the sentiments of the racing nation – Igugu had come under pressure and her day would quite possibly end in disaster.  There was a defining moment around the 300m mark that would see her give up, or try again. In that split second, as close to defeat as she could be, Igugu suddenly took a champion’s breath, grabbed a hold of the bit and told Delpech, “let’s go Bonji!”

Racing to the last 100m of the 2012 J&B Met it was all there – every bit of Igugu they, we had all come to appreciate and treasure and had come to watch.  Delpech, cucumber cool but feverishly spirited anew, drew on the stick to encourage her – she responded with a thrust of power, reeled in a game Bravura and Gimmethgreenlight, the land’s best older and best younger horse – and got their measure with 50m to run .

Igugu won going away by 0.40-lengths, producing for her legion of supporters a rare, frenzied colourburst that hit the racing fanatic’s collective brain with a rush of pure adlenaline– last sensed when Horse Chestnut won the great race.  In the gruelling, stride-for-stride drive to the line, the world came momentarily to an almost paralysing standstill, life unreal releasing its firm grip just after the winning post, euphoric for all.

Delpech often has one arm straight up in the air at times like these, his victory salute. But this time his emotions only caught up with him in the post-race interview when he was overcome by tears of joy and relief. “We came into this race with big pressure and I’d made a mistake in her gallop at home. She wasn’t herself and the pace was too slow today, she likes to gallop. But I couldn’t panic. She gave it her all over the last 100m. She doesn’t know how to lose. I wish to God I can always stay on her back!”

Mike de Kock, pale, was also struck with raw emotion. “Igugu almost had no right to win today. I’d say she was 90% of herself. But she dug down deep and I am humbled. This day wouldn’t have been the same without her. She contributed to making it so good. This was a great team effort. Thanks to Mathew (De Kock) and John (Buckler) who worked with her at Randjesfontein.”

He added: “Igugu was sluggish today, she wasn’t herself. She didn’t get out well. Lesser horses wouldn’t have done what she has just done. It wasn’t easy. There were knockers and naysayers. But she rewarded our faith and trust.  Well done to her owners, they deserve every bit of success. We will celebrate now, we are pretty good at that!”

Igugu, a four-year-old by Galileo from Zarinia by Intikhab, has won 10 of 12 starts and R5,684,000 in stakes. Not only for her connections, but for South African racing. We’re awestruck, all of us. She stopped our hearts. We are humbled by true greatness.

Ebony Flyer (5-2, photo, green and red silks) unleashed her familiar powerful  finish and ran her rivals out of it in the last 200m of the race, beating the hard-knocking Frequent Flyer into second. Barcelona Winter stayed on for third.

Snaith said: “Ebony Flyer went flat in her last run, which happened to be the Queen’s Plate. Horses with wind problems are llike athletes with knee problems. They can get surgery but it’s never ideal.”

He praised Barry Irwin of Team Valor International, who owns the filly in partnership with Gaynor Rupert’s Drakenstein Stud, Anant and Vanashree Singh. “Barry is not lucky, he’s a genius. We discussed Ebony Flyer (after the Queen’s Plate) and he suggested we back off her. She did it on her ability. She is just that good. She is world class, a monster!”

Jockey Felix Coetzee, himself in good form on the day with two earlier winners for Snaith, said he he didn’t know what to expect after Ebony Flyer’s last run.

“I was concerned with her Number 9 draw, but we found a nice spot. I didn’t want to take pacemaker Gibraltar Blue on because that would’ve tapped her. Gibraltar Blue went to the outside and to make up the ground I just followed the flow and left her. When she came through to hit the front I just shouted, ‘Go Girl, Go Girl!’ Thank you to Justin and his team and the owners for a great team effort.”

The colt by Dynasty continued a sensational streak of Graded wins for trainer Brett Crawford and jockey Karis Teetan and also gave part-owner Ian Longmore his second Gr1 success in the last month.

In Jackson, Longmore and partner Jack Mitchell have a potential superstar whose international value would have grown to $US1-million and possibly more and it will be interesting to see whether the stable will entertain any offers from bloodstock agents.  Neither Longmore or Mitchell are individuals who battle to pay the rent and they might not be bothered to take calls from a legion of the thoroughbred world’s professional con artists.

Brett Crawford (middle), in happy spirits with Mike Sharkey (left) and Jack Mitchell.

Mitchell described his sense of appreciation and awe for his colt: “It’s worth a million rand just looking at Jackson, he’s a beautiful horse!” Longmore paid trubute to Mike Sharkey of Highlands Farm, who bred Jackson from a former Durban July winner and a mare by Cozzene.

Crawford commented: “I am humbled to work with a horse of this calibre. He’d come on a lot after the Politician Stakes. We had Variety Club to follow, he showed what a top horse he is, but Jackson fought it out and won. I am going to enjoy this moment.”

Teetan said: “Jackson was closer in the early part today, he bounced out better. Last time we wanted him to run on. Variety Club was going well, but when I got into Jackson he kept giving me more.”

Jackson has won four of five starts and R756,000 in stakes.

Igugu didn’t make the truck from Johannesburg to Cape Town; she got off the truck suffering from illness at halfway; Mike de Kock wanted to scratch her when she eventually arrived… all malicious nonsense on twitter, facebook and talk forums – one wonders what kind of perverse pleasure some individuals derive from circulating such crap!

Then again, looking at some of the clowns that post their stupid opinions on the social networks and elsewhere, it is clear that a section of the racing population consists of pea-brained imbeciles, some of them so mentally disturbed they are potentially dangerous.

Back to the big race – form guru Robert Bloomberg pointed out this morning the apparent lack of a pacemaker (Mike de Kock may even set the pace with Igugu’s stablemate Il Sanpietro) – Igugu’s excellent mark on the weight scale at the conditions, and assessed that it’s very hard to see the star filly getting her colours lowered.

Gimmethegreenlight, a superb three-year-old winner of a Gr1 WFA race and in receipt of 3kg from the filly – whilst rated 117 on a par with her – must have a chance of beating Igugu, but it won’t be easy. The daughter if Galileo should add to her already hugely impressive list of trophies.

From a personal point of view, the only drawback as the day starts is that the Cape Sun, with possibly around 1,000 J&B Met guests in this fine establishment, is not willing to replace one of four Supersport channels with DSTV232, Tellytrack, unacceptable and made even worse by the fact that in-room sports viewing is now more or less limited to the unspeakable horror called cricket!!

To hell with you Cape Sun, for messing up this glorious day so early!

There is a Pick 6 carryover of R133,000 going to today’s big meeting.  For freeracer’s SMS tips – in great form all week – please take note of the options below, all of which will include tips for two meetings today, available after 1130:

FOR Best Bets: SMS BB to 41755 (R25)
For Value Bets: SMS RWV to 38954 (R10)
For Place Accumulator: SMS PA to 41755. (R25)
For Pick 6: SMS P6 to 41755 (R25)
For Jackpot: SMS JP to 41755 (R25)
For Lay Of The Day: SMS LAY TO 41755

Azzie said, “He travelled well and we took him for a nice walk. I’m very happy with him.”

Potala Palace (photo, yellow silks), who won the Grade 1 Premier’s Champion Stakes over 1600m at Greyville as a two-year-old last season, is highly rated by Azzie, who warned after his first and only win in three runs this season that he would get better the further he went.

Azzie was unhappy with the ride he was given in the Grade 2 Dingaans over 1600m when he was taken to the front after a sluggish start from a wide draw.

The Singspiel three-year-old colt was duly held up last time in a MR 94 handicap over 1600m and stayed on well for a creditable three length third considering the trip was too sharp for him and he was meeting some useful older horses off a merit rating of 105.

Azzie said, “That was a nice comeback run and he has come through the run perfectly.”

Potala Palace will stay under vector protection at the Kenilworth Quarantine Station and Azzie said, “It’s not ideal, but you have to take what is thrown at you.”   

Dean Kannemeyer runs one of the country’s most exciting three-year-olds, Divine Jet, in the eighth on Saturday, a MR 96 Handicap over 1200m.

Divine Jet is merit rated 101 and Kannemeyer said, “It won’t be easy for a young three-year-old, but he is very good. In the Guineas he moved up well in the straight before going up and down in the last furlong, so there was a question mark whether he stayed. But we were always on the back from that draw. I’m still convinced he will get a mile as he matures. He’s a very smart horse and I think he’s a sprint-miler.”        

Kannemeyer runs Alula Borealis, a three-year-old Go Deputy gelding, in the Grade 1 Investec Cape Derby.

Kannemeyer said, “He is doing very well. His last run was a very good run for a three-year-old (1,25 length second to Thanks John over 1800m off a 98 merit rating). He over raced with blinkers on then so I’ve taken them off.  He doesn’t have a good draw, but if he puts his best foot forward he could be in the shake up. Jackson is the horse to beat.”

In the J&B reserve Stayers over 2800m he runs Blake and In Writing and lamented the bad draws he has been getting in the features all season as they have drawn 16 and eleven respectively.

He said, “Blake has been a model of consistency but has a very difficult draw. The most important part of this race is the first 400m and it’s not easy from a wide draw going into that sharp bend. But he is very well. In Writing has had to run three times with top weight over this distance but now there are only 2kg from top to bottom. His draw is not good, but he’s not out of it.”

Hodgson runs the useful four-year-old Kahal gelding Uncle Tommy in the eighth and said, “He seems to prefer the sting to be out of the ground a bit. It’s a very competitive race.”

Rain Gal, a four-year-old Australian-bred Galileo filly, is in hard knocking form from 1200-1600m and runs in the second, a MR 88 Handicap for fillies and mares over 1200m.

Hodgson said, “She is doing very well, but wants further.”

Power Dive runs in the first, a MR 88 Handicap over 1400m, and he said, “I’ve been keeping him up the straight to get him stronger. He is now ready for the turn and is looking for this trip.”

The three-year-old Kabool gelding has some good recent form, so has a chance but does face quite a wide draw of nine.