Rock On! Rock Arts(Sean Veale) holds off the attentions of the filly Negev to win the Emperors Palace Ready To Run Cup
Bad draws don’t stop good horses. That may be the lesson from the brilliant win by Rock Of Arts in the R2,5 million Emperors Palace Ready To Run Cup at Turffontein on Saturday. Jockey Sean Veale and trainer Weiho Marwing must also take a lot of the credit for a plan come together.
Sandwiched between this past weekend’s Emperors Palace Ready To Run Sale days, this well endowed race has had the tongues wagging and the pundits speculating for months. The final field was announced on Tuesday last week without any noticeable controversy.
Fair enough, the fairytale scriptwriters may have chosen a South African-bred horse as the winner, but we must concede that these Australians aren’t the worst racehorse breeders on earth either.
Australian–breds were to win only two of the five features on the afternoon, so we can’t whinge about that, and Rock Arts owners, the Chinsammy family, appear to have a very exciting prospect on their hands. They are living proof too that we all have our own good reasons for buying racehorses. Theirs just happened to be as a birthday gift, we hear.
Drama
There was high drama just prior to the start when the fancied undefeated daughter of Mullins Bay, Tinchy Stryder was withdrawn by the Vet. To add to the drama and nerves of expectant owners and excited punters, there was a further delay when the Joe Soma-trained Savage Wind reared badly with Muzi Yeni limping away from the stalls. That ended happily though.
Extra Zing was the early pacemaker from Lonsome Dove with Rock Of Arts miraculously lobbing along in third place, just ahead of Tealion. At this stage Negev was easily ten lengths off the action.
Lonsome Dove led into the straight from Extra Zing , Rock Of Arts, Dylan’s Promise and Tealion.
Strydom was seen gathering Negev for a run at the 300m marker as Lonsome Dove tired and Rock Of Arts was bounced into the lead.
In an exciting drive to the wire, Veale showed the advantage of first run as he kept the gelding going to hold a gallant Negev.
My Ride! Sean Veale rode a cracker on Rock Of Arts.
Veale said afterwards that the race had panned out ‘perfectly’ and confirmed what we could see- that he had sat on his mount up the straight after the energy sapping exercise of overcoming the draw. Veale said that he had managed to ‘stay out of trouble’ and that Rock Of Arts was a better horse with the blinkers.
Trainer Weiho Marwing said that his prep had gone well and he was fit in his third outing after a rest.
Rock Of Arts won by a short-head in a time of 85,42 secs.
Irony
The runner-up, the filly Negev, also ran a cracker from her wide draw and looked a winner in another stride. The daughter of Stronghold, who started totalisator favourite, had made up a lot of ground in the home run and can be considered a trifle unlucky.
The win had some twisted irony too for jockey Sean Veale, who had been jocked off Rock Of Arts in favour of Felix Coetzee. Veale said rather frankly afterwards that while he felt for Coetzee, this was ‘always my ride.’
Coetzee was unable to fulfil his engagements on Saturday after being stood down at Arlington on Friday, complaining of lower back pain. Veale grabbed the opportunity with both hands though and the former Capetonian showed what he can do when given the gaps.
The disappointment of the race was Mike De Kock’s Lonsome Dove, who appeared to tire badly and finished last, some 26 lengths behind. She may have needed the run after a six months absence.
Stakes were paid all the way down to tenth position, and James Goodman’s London Olympics was the last horse to ‘beat the clock.’ She finished 14 lengths behind under Kevin Shea, but at least covered some of her travelling expenses.
Down Under
Bred in Victoria Australia by Cranton Bloodstock, Rock Of Arts is a son of Coolmore Danehill stallion Rock Of Gibraltar and cost R850 000 on the Emperors Palace Ready To Run sale last year.
Rock Of Gibraltar was trained in two seasons of racing by Aidan O’Brien. He set a world record of seven Gr1 wins before finishing second to Domedriver in the 2002 Breeders’ Cup Mile. Rock of Gibraltar was voted the 2002 European Horse of the Year.
For much of his racing career, Rock of Gibraltar ran in the colours of Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson, who was named as a part-owner along with Susan Magnier, wife of Coolmore owner John Magnier. Upon Rock of Gibraltar’s retirement, Ferguson and John Magnier were involved in a dispute over the exact nature of the ownership of the horse which was eventually settled out of court.
Meritorious
Rock Of Arts is out of the six-time winning Anabaa mare, Dash On Ruby.
Rock Of Arts is now a winner of 2 of his 6 starts with 3 places registered and career earnings of R1 171 375, considerably boosted of course by the handsome stake offered for this non black-type feature.
Despite the late withdrawal of Tarry’s promising filly, Rock Of Art’s decisive win looks loaded with serious merit.
For those who observed the couple of seconds immediately after the 1400m start, the impact of the outside draw was illustrated in no uncertain terms. It looked like those drawn in the first half had five lengths start on the outside horses, who literally looked to be in another race.
A top-class victory by the Marwing gelding. And pencil the Louis Goosen’s Stronghold filly in too. She is destined for exciting things.
