The great Michael Roberts never scored even a nomination for the South African sportsman of the year award, despite winning countless domestic jockeys’ championship titles and then putting one over on the best Pom riders in their own backyard.
So it’s a fair bet that the achievements a week ago of another Michael — Joburg-based trainer De Kock — will receive little recognition outside of horseracing circles, even though they rank right up there with, say, Bafana Bafana thrashing a full-strength Brazil 6-0 before a sold-out crowd at the Maracana stadium in Rio de Janeiro … in a World Cup final! For those who still haven’t heard, De Kock scored an eye-popping double on Dubai World Cup night, winning the Grade 1 Dubai Duty Free with Ipi Tombe and the Grade 2 UAE Derby with Victory Moon.
Each race was worth a cool $1,2-million to the winner.
Despite suffering major interference in his 2 000m race, Victory Moon eclipsed two runners from the world’s mightiest racing establishment, Godolphin — which won three of the remaining five races. Songlark and the favourite, Inamorato, were left to squabble over the place money as the South African-bred son of Al Mufti streaked past them to win by half a length. Champion filly Ipi Tombe, ridden by Kevin Shea, set a race record over the 1 777m Nad Al Sheba track, coming home lonely by three lengths. And, if this isn’t already enough of a David-and-Goliath tale, remember that Ipi Tombe was bred, and indeed started her career, in that most fashionable of the world’s horse-racing centres, Zimbabwe, before her contingent of 32 owners brought her south to win the July.
The question now is: how many Zim dollars exactly are there in that 1,2-million greenbacks? By chance, but most appropriately, the main race this weekend is named after Mike de Kock’s best horse — and, many believe, South Africa’s greatest yet. The R500 000 Grade 1 Horse Chestnut Stakes over a mile at Turffontein on Saturday has attracted just 10 runners, many likely contenders probably being scared off by the presence of that great miler from the Cape, Free My Heart. ‘Heartâ€, who slammed a top-class field in this event last year, comes fresh off a runner-up finish in the J&B Met and, running over arguably his best distance, the seven-year-old seems to have the race at his mercy again. He hasn’t raced for more than two months, but I have a feeling that trainer Dean Kannemeyer and jockey Karl Neisius haven’t brought the gelding to Johannesburg to show him the Brixton tower.
De Kock’s main entry appears to be Domino Man, who memorably upset red-hot favourite Dynasty in the Cape Guineas. In three subsequent runs, however, he hasn’t disproved that that victory was a fluke. Four-year-old Hinterland is a class act too, and as a gutsy frontrunner will particularly enjoy the services of jockey Mark Khan.
However, the chestnut seems far more at home over 1 400m and the stiff Turffontein mile could prove a furlong too far. Stable companion Nhlavini is mainly kept to sprinting, but he was tried in the July a couple of years ago — that was too far — and patently stayed a mile as a three-year-old.
The son of National Assembly is no slouch and could make the Heart skip a beat or two. The third of trainer Charles Laird’s runners is three-year-old Bianconi, who has already won six of his nine starts and could still improve. Noteworthy here is that Piere Strydom has opted for this son of Rambo Dancer in preference to Hinterland, on whom he scored an easy victory last time.
David Ferraris, who reportedly will be packing soon to train in Hong Kong, also sends out three runners, all of whom have ability on their day but seem unlikely to threaten the likes of Free My Heart and Nhlavini. Set Afire (Rhys van Wyk aboard) possibly prefers more ground, Simply Salmon (Anthony Delpech) just hasn’t delivered on the promise of his juvenile days and De Los Rios (Guilermo Figueroa), who has already scored in a grade 1 race, seems to just lack the class required in this weight-for-age contest. That leaves de Kock’s other runner, Danziga, who seems to have a mountain to climb, and Grand Format, who at his last win pipped none other than subsequent Summer Cup winner Eventuail. He looks highly unlikely to scale those heights here.
Another interesting race is the seventh at Kenilworth, a merit-rated sprint over 1 000m, where Zolaroyale, a daughter of Dominion Royale, bids for her eighth win from just 10 starts. She looked like a champion in the making as a juvenile, then failed as a red-hot ‘good thing†in April last year and was subsequently very
disappointing in the Allan Robertson sprint behind useful Paraca. An eight-month break after that race seems to have done the trick, though: Zolaroyale has raced and won four times since her return. She meets some nice fillies here and will have to be at her best to land the spoils.