Great things have always been predicted for Past Master from those who know him best, and the gelding took to sprinting like a duck to water when dropped to 1200m for Saturday’s WPOTA Diadem Stakes over 1200m at Kenilworth. Now it may be true that South Africa’s sprinting cupboard is a bit bare in the absence of J J The Jet Plane, but Past Master nevertheless demolished some very good rivals indeed in the Diadem, where ten of the twelve starters were past Graded Stakes winners, and looks to be versatile as well as gifted, writes Matthew Lips.
KZN visitor Tropical Empire was the best treated on merit ratings by the WFA conditions of the Diadem and also seemed likely to find this stiff 1200m to his liking. He was well supported to start as the 7/2 favourite ahead of 4/1 second choice Rushing Wind (who’d finished second behind J J The Jet Plane over 1200m at Gr 1 level during the winter), with Warm White Night an 11/2 chance and Past Master going off at 7/1 in his first try over this distance since he won a Kenilworth 1200m maiden in August 2009.
Gaultier showed plenty of early dash and showed the way down the inside, with Past Master in his slipstream, while Warm White Night and Jamaican Dream were up with the action over on the stands’ side of the course. Blue Tiger was not very far off the outside leaders, with Tropical Empire a few lengths off the pace. The race unfolded in earnest over towards the inside of the track, though. Gaultier was still blazing a trail as they came to the last 200m, but Past Master was now turning on the heat and ranged up alongside before stretching away under Gerrit Schlechter in the final 100m to win by three lengths, in a style which really can only be described as emphatic.
Gaultier came out second best, proving that he can still turn it on even though he has become somewhat inconsistent these days. Historically there has always been almost nothing to choose between him and stable companion Blue Tiger when both horses are on song and that was again the case here, with Blue Tiger staying on to get to within a neck of Gaultier in third place. There were absolutely no signs of the poor behaviour which Blue Tiger had displayed behind the gates in his last intended appearance in the Green Point Stakes in November, where he was eventually scratched for refusing to go in. Saturday’s effort added to the fine record which Blue Tiger has accumulated in the Diadem, a race he won in 2008 before finishing second twelve months later. Maybe in 2011 he’ll be fourth?
Rushing Wind stayed on to finish a never dangerous fourth, 1.25 lengths behind Blue Tiger, but Tropical Empire never really got going while Warm White Night was a spent force a long way from home and once again looked like a mere shadow of his former multiple Gr 1 winning self. Just what the future holds for this son of Western Winter is hard to say. His enthusiasm for racing shows no signs of being revitalised and it is too late for him to take up stallion duty this season. Gelding him as a multiple Gr 1 winner at the age of five would hardly seem the most likely option and the decision to forego retirement to stud in 2010 seems to have backfired.
Past Master was laid off for ten months through injury after comfortably beating his then-stable companion Noordhoek Flyer in the Gr 2 Selangor Cup over 1600m more than a year ago. He has been brought along slowly by trainer Darryl Hodgson, who took over Past Master from Dean Kannemeyer during the gelding’s convalescence. Camera-shy as ever, Hodgson refused to be interviewed after the Diadem, but winning owner Hassen Adams intimated that Past Master had been brought along slowly after his injury. Given the way Past Master won here, he is only now coming right back to his best and a big step up in trip to the 2000m of the J & B Met could be on the cards for the four-year-old. How he will cope with that is frankly anyone’s guess and it may be rather a lot to ask, but Past Master has run on very strongly up to 1600m in the past and is certainly not “just” a sprinter by any stretch of the imagination. What he appears to be is a mighty good and mighty versatile prospect, and he looks well up to Gr 1 class.
“I just gave him every chance and let him stride,” was how Schlechter summed up the Diadem, adding that Past Master “picked it up nicely and won comfortably. He gives you a top class feel.” Yes, the son of Jet Master looked top class from this side of the fence as well. For sure he ran well above his 103 merit rating (Gaultier and Blue Tiger raced off marks of 109 and 112 respectively) and it is not fanciful to think that Past Master ran to a rating which makes him the best 1200m horse in South Africa today. At least until such time as the “other” flying son of Jet Master comes home, that is.
Past Master is the first foal of Western Winter mare Early Thaw, whose four career wins all came over 1200m. With a mating like that it is hardly surprising that he took so kindly to this drop in distance, but his second dam Happy News won up to 1800m and produced 3600m PE Gold Cup winner Palm King so there are stamina influences in the pedigree as well. Bred at Hyjo Stud, Past Master was bought for R375 000 from the select session of the 2008 National Yearling Sale and has won four times from eight starts, earning R494 770.
Diadem S. (SAf-G2) (12/18)
Kenilworth, South Africa, December 18, R300.000, 1200m, turf, good, 1.09.93 (CR 1.09.90).
PAST MASTER (SAF), 60.0, ch g 4, Jet Master (SAF) – Early Thaw (SAF) by Western Winter. Owner H Adams; breeder Hyjo Stud; trainer DR Hodgson; jockey G Schlechter (R198.913)
Gaultier (SAF), 60.0, b g 6, Jallad – Elegantly by Danzig
Blue Tiger (SAF), 60.0, gr h 6, Counter Action (SAF) – Manuka (SAF) by Rainbow Dream (FR)
Margins: 3, nk, 1¼
Also ran: Rushing Wind (SAF) 60.0, Tropical Empire (AUS) 60.0, Dance With Al (SAF) 57.5, Wethreekings (SAF) 60.0, Jamaican Dream (SAF) 60.0, Bush Pirate (SAF) 60.0, Casey Cool (SAF) 60.0, Warm White Night (SAF) 60.0, Forest Path (SAF) 60.0
