Seal of Approval

Seal – more than a match in the SA Derby

It’s a rare thing when a Gr 1 race is won by a horse whose most recent victory came in a work riders’ handicap, but that was the story of the SA Derby over 2450m at Turffontein on Saturday. Making full use of his proven stamina, Seal proved more than a match for some much more highly rated rivals to run out a comfortable winner of a Derby where only he and Ice Flag amongst a field of 13 had winning form over distances around 2400m, writes Matthew Lips.

Seal did attract some support at long odds and started as a 10/1 chance from an ante-post call of 20/1, but it was Perena who went off as the well supported 16/10 (from 3/1) favourite.  Galileo’s Destiny and Gr 1 SA Classic winner English Garden were two next choices of the market at 3/1 and 75/20 respectively, while Gr 1 Cape Derby winner and SA Classic runner-up Top Seller started as an 11/2 chance.  Available at 15/1 was Ice Flag, who’d narrowly beaten Seal in a minor event over the Turffontein 2450m in March.

Belmonte was the first to show, but before long it was Shere Khan who went out to set a reasonable pace as Belmonte settled into second ahead of Masai Warrior and Perana.  Ice Flag and Seal were next in line as the likes of Galileo’s Destiny, Top Seller and English Garden were all held up well off the pace.  The last named only had Merlion behind him as the field reached the top of the straight, where Perana looked to be absolutely cruising in behind the leaders.  Things were looking more than promising for backers of the favourite as Perana took over not long after turning in, but he began to look vulnerable inside the last 300m and his effort soon fizzled out to nothing.

Seal, meantime, was starting to make excellent progress wide out as Top Seller set off in pursuit with Galileo’s Destiny also getting into the fray.  English Garden was running on well past beaten horses too, but Seal burst to the front racing to the last 200m and soon put the race to bed, running on very well under MJ Odendaal to win comfortably by 2.25 lengths.  Galileo’s Destiny and the running-on English Garden eventually dead-heated for second, with Top Seller fully 4.75 lengths further adrift in fourth.  Perana was beaten 13 lengths into seventh spot and gave every sign of having not seen out the distance, but he is known to have his quirks and there is no real way of knowing whether he failed to stay 2450m or whether he lost interest in proceedings.  His trainer Mike de Kock did remark in an earlier interview that Perana would be gelded first thing on Monday morning if he failed to deliver the goods, but being by Rock Of Gibraltar there is every reason to believe the vanquished favourite is best suited to considerably less ground than 2450m.

Seal is trained by Summerveld-based Gavin van Zyl, but the trainer gave most of the credit to his son Chesney, who oversees the yard’s satellite operation in Gauteng.  “All the accolades go to Chesney,” noted his produd Dad, who added that, “he’ll be a fine trainer one day.”

Van Zyl has kept a yard during the Feature season in Johannesburg for almost as long as he has been training and has more than once reaped the rewards.  This, however, was Van Zyl’s first Gr 1 success as a trainer anywhere, and you can bet the farm that it won’t be the last.  Not all successful jockeys find the transition to training horses to be anything like as rewarding as riding them, but Team Van Zyl has taken to its current role like a duck to water.

English Garden ran on stoutly all the way to the line and seemed to cope all right with the Derby distance, with the same probably also true of his fellow runner-up Galileo’s Destiny, but there was no sign of Seal’s previous conqueror Ice Flag, who never got into the race before finishing downfield.  Seal ran a very long way above his previous form to win this race off a mark of 90 (the joint second finishers were rated 108 and 104), but he looks like a true staying type who is only now beginning to fulfil his true potential and there didn’t seem to be too much of a fluke about his Derby success even if to some extent he did get first run on some of his more fancied rivals.

Even the winning rider confessed afterwards to having had his doubts.  “I didn’t think he was quite in this class,” remarked MJ Odendaal, a former SA champion jockey who has somehow found the resilience to repeatedly return to riding after more than one shocking fall that would have had most jockeys hanging up their boots forever.   It would take a very churlish man or woman indeed to begrudge the pony-tailed Odendaal whatever success he may continue to enjoy in the saddle after the things he has been through.  Just the thought of all the hospital “food” he has been obliged to eat makes a person shiver.

Seal is a gelded son of the perennially successful Silvano and is the first foal of the unraced Rambo Dancer mare Prestine Performer.  Bred by Dr Ian Heyns, Seal was acquired for R210 000 at the 2009 Sibaya Yearling Sale in Durban and has won three times from ten starts for stakes of R1 079 212.