For many racing people the biggest disappointment of last season was Flight Alert’s flop in the Durban July — and quite understandably. Not only was Mike de Kock’s colt a well-supported favourite, but some were daring to hope that he would fill the alumites left vacant by his trainer’s “horse of a lifetime” and become the next star of the South African turf.
So, Flight Alert, as De Kock warned, is no Horse Chestnut. Who is?
Flight Alert followed his July failure with an unplaced run in the Champions Cup over the Clairwood 2 000m — confirming, as his breeding suggests, that he doesn’t see out much more than a mile in top company.
So a different story is very much on the cards in the R100 000 Hyperion Handicap over 1 400m at Turffontein on Saturday.
Being a handicap, victory for the four-year-old cannot be regarded as a formality — but he still seems very well in with his main rivals. One has only to recall the consummate ease with which Flight Alert cantered to victory in the Cape Guineas to realise that Geoff Woodruff’s useful miler Eventuail, who finished almost five lengths back in fourth, is going to need much more than the 0,5kg pull he gets here — even with Piere Strydom in the saddle.
Flight Alert’s stable companions Major Hero and Escoleta Fitz have the ability to challenge but for the most part the rest of the 16 runners all seem to need more ground, or less, or seem to be simply outclassed.
One who races over possibly his best distance is Des Egdes’s KwaZulu-Natal raider Whacky Lad — but he meets Flight Alert at level weights and has his work cut out.
In the third race, a maiden plate over 1 400m, David Ferraris’s Divine Force colt East Is East could go one better than his fast-finishing second on his debut a fortnight ago. He seems to have most to fear from Ormond Ferraris’s Winter Legend, who is coming to form nicely.
Charles Laird’s Venturesome could be hard to beat in the fourth, a progress plate. This half-sister to Hinterland was fifth in the Golden Slipper after slamming a maiden field by 7,5 lengths at her third start.
Kahzima, another Laird runner, contests the sixth, a fillies handicap over 1 200m. This daughter of top United States sire Gulch is owned by Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, one of the world’s leading owners, and won her only South African start narrowly at Greyville, at cramped odds. Expect improvement.
Six-year-old Ship’s Gossip seems to have taken on a new lease on life recently, winning the Gold Vase and being placed in two of his last four runs. He ran on strongly from the back of the field at Clairwood last time and could find the galloping Turffontein track to his liking in the eighth, a handicap over 2 000m.
The last race could fall to De Kock’s Australian-bred filly Why Not Wendell. She showed improvement at each of her first three starts before finishing lame in her last run.
Kenilworth best bet: Night Sight (race 1) Scottsville: Boot Lace (race 2); Victory Ticket (race 3); Eiger (race 8)