whipping boy
It’s business as usual in the Cape of Good Hope Derby at Kenilworth on Saturday. Simintov Property and Investment (Pty) Ltd are running Badger’s Drift in the R400?000 classic. The firm paid a cool R500?000 for the colt, insured their asset and engaged the services of the champion trainer-jockey combination, Geoff Woodruff and Anton Marcus. The well-related investment vehicle has raced five times, for three eye-catching wins and a fourth place in the Argus Guineas, South Africa’s top race for three-year-olds. He has earned back more than R100 000 so far and if he wins the R250 000 first prize in just his sixth race his hefty purchase price will start looking downright cheap. You can bank on many more dividends in the future. It all looks like sound business sense has prevailed for Simintov buy the best, employ the best, and leave romance and sentimentality out of calculations.
For Mr and Mrs Foster and Messrs Freeman, Mitchell, Ward and Wilson, things might look slightly different. The half-dozen of them shelled out R35?000 for their filly, Tastevin, at the same sale at which Simintov’s number crunchers countersigned their bank-backed cheque to file Badger’s Drift in their portfolio. Tastevin has been good to her owners, making them almost R100?000 from her five runs to date including a third place to rising star Hoeberg in the Paddock Stakes for fillies and mares. The first foal of a winning mare, the daughter of Sportsworld has no real family to boast of but the little upstart could upset the careful calculations of the syndicate behind Badger’s Drift. Each met the best of their sex and age in their last outings. In a heart-stopping finish, Badger’s Drift was unable to match strides with the top three males in the Guineas. His fourth place, however, gives him an excellent chance. Nothing that he meets here looks quite as strong. Tastevin, coming into the Paddock off a hat-trick, also tasted defeat, beaten two lengths by brilliant imported filly Hoeberg. It’s the first time that either of our protagonists meets the opposite sex, and the 2?000m race will provide important data on how the current crop of three-year-old colts and fillies shape up against each other. Tastevin has proven ability over this distance, but there is little reason to doubt Badger’s Drift’s stamina.
Origami, the only other filly in the race, is well-tried and was just 1,75 lengths behind Tastevin in the Paddock. At 20-1 this one could prove a fair bet for a place. Grand Jete went into the Guineas off a five-win streak and was beaten 1,50 lengths by Badger. There seems to be no real reason that the form shouldn’t hold.
Kiwi import Millennium Champ could be a lurker. The David Payne-trained gelding raced against a much weaker bunch last time, doing only enough to win in beating a fair four-year-old over the Derby course and distance. He can run, but he faces his sternest test so far. There are a fair number of no-hopers making up the field, but they do give their owners a passport into the Kenilworth parade ring.