Nothing would be more fitting than South Africa’s top earner winning the last race on the card at Africa’s richest race meeting. Grand old warrior El Picha, already the only horse in South Africa to have topped the R3-million mark in stakes won, can push that impressive figure beyond R4-million with victory in the R500 000 grade 1 Champion Stakes over 2 000m at Turffontein on Saturday.
And you just know that trainer Geoff Woodruff and the Argentinian-bred’s connections mean business when you see that they have engaged ”Prince” Robbie Hill for the ride.
Prince it was who steered El Picha to his incredible July-Summer Handicap double, prompting Woodruff to declare: ”He can ride him whenever he wants to.” The parting of the ways came when Hill was injured and Woodruff’s stable jockeys (first Anton Marcus, then Brett Smith) filled in and sort of stayed aboard. Marcus, of course, made it a July double when holding on in that incredible photo finish with Young Rake in 2000, but Smith, capable as he is, has never won on the gelding.
El Picha is now seven years old and some will argue that he is past his best. Indeed, they will note that he meets a very strong field boasting, among them, the winners of three Julys, three Mets, two Summer Cups, two Champions Cups, one Queen’s Plate and, for good measure, last year’s winner of this race.
The likes of Ingleside, Badger’s Coast, Young Rake, Bunter Barlow and Trademark certainly make the prospect of a fairytale reunion between the Prince and his steed less than inevitable, but on recent form El Picha must have as good a chance as any of winning. At his very best he could blow them away.
The other grade 1 races on the day look equally daunting: the R400 000 Gold Bowl might fall to Tytola, also trained by Woodruff (with Smith up), but this handicap is not one to bet the rent on.
A sneaker might be the James Goodman-trained Federal Reserve ? if he sees out the two miles. This one came back to best to win last week and the stable is in hot form.
The main feature, the R1-million SA Derby over 2 450m, could go to Cape visitor Steiger, a good second to surprise winner Key Of Destiny on his Highveld debut. David Ferraris just about owned this day last year and his pair of Set Afire and De Los Rios will make Joe Ramsden’s colt work for victory.
Ferraris will also take some stopping in the R750 000 South African Nursery where he could saddle the first three in Suntagonal, Noble Knight and Fort Danzig.
Syon, a Mike de Kock-trained son of Fort Wood, might thwart Ferraris’s game Appeal Process in the R400 000 grade 2 Merchants. Syon was an unlucky loser to Citius in his last start while Appeal Process benefited from the combination of a brilliant Piere Strydom and a forgettable ride by Robbie Sham on Zimbabwean visitor Honour The Guest to win his last.
It’s an unusually tough card for a Champions’ Day, but a good idea might be to follow the top trainers.