Ken Daniels Horse racing
Picking a Fort Wood horse to win a feature race is about as easy as predicting that the price of alcohol and cigarettes will go up in the budget.
After picking off three of the four choice plums in the Cape racing feature season, the Mike de Kock/Weichong Mawing combination returns to Gauteng this week to pluck another cherry in the form of the Diners Club Handicap at Newmarket on Saturday night.
But this time there is no Fort Wood horse in the race. De Kock and Mawing almost completed a clean sweep of Cape Feature races by winning the Argus Guineas and the J&B Met with the superlative Horse Chestnut and then the Cape Derby last week with the Fort Wood filly Dog Wood.
In Saturday’s race the De Kock and Mawing team are running Smart Money in the R200E000 race of 2E000m but this does not look as plain sailing as his conquests with the Fort Wood progeny. While there is no doubting Smart Money’s class, his best performances have been over slightly less distance.
His two placings in the Met seem to negate the argument, but it is generally accepted that the Kenilworth 2E000 is less demanding than the equivalent distance on Highveld courses.
His supporters will say that his fourth in the Met, which he achieved in spite receiving a few hefty bumps, suggests he is good enough to win on Saturday, but he may be found a few metres short at the finish.
But De Kock has another arrow in his quiver in the form of the lightly raced Pol Roger.
What’s interesting is that Pierre Strydom has taken the ride on the horse, which on paper looks a little lacking in class, having recently progressed from C Division races to where he has to carry level weights against some tough customers.
Strydom could have gone looking elsewhere in this race for a ride. Not on Flying Promise though, after his spat with Tony Millard, who expressed his displeasure that Strydom did not ride another horse, Flying Duel, to his instructions. Strydom and Millard parted company.
Anton Marcus, who is normally engaged by David Ferraris, is now riding Flying Promise. Ferraris’s runner Keenland Gold was due to be ridden by Guillermo Figueroa who appears to have developed an understanding with the horse.
But Figueroa fell in Port Elizabeth last week and broke his collarbone and has been replaced by Robbie Fradd. If the temperamental horse decides to raise a gallop for the Durban jockey, he will certainly make the others run. The horse is perfectly distance suited, well in at the weights and has proved he can pace it out with some of the best in the business. Keenland Gold also carries the fortunes of his father, Rakeen, who is locked in a duel with the recently imported Fort Wood at the top of the table of champion sires.
Rakeen holds a slender lead at the top and a win in Saturday’s race will hold off the pretender to the throne. Pat Shaw’s Ingleside, with in-form Johnny Geroudis in the saddle, seems held by Keenland Gold but could spoil the party if the Rakeen gelding decides to sulk without “Figgy” on his back.
The top jockey in the country at the moment, Anthony Delpech, finds himself on Valley Dancer, who along with Yankee Blue Dill would prefer a distance even longer than this one.
So although the race may be missing a little of the new splash of glamour created by the Fort Wood offspring, it is an intriguing contest between top trainers, top jockeys and the battle by the country’s top sire to hold his place at the top of the table.