The fast improving Eddie Sweat (inside) may be the value in a wide open race
The speed merchants step out under the Greyville lights on Friday evening in one of the most open Gr2 Post Merchants in recent years. The draw and recent form should play leading support roles in the R350 000 turf feature, but there is no denying the prevalence of ability and class amongst many of the contestants.
The feature is the only turf race on a mixed night of polytrack for the minor events. The recent Gr1 Golden Horse Sprint should serve as a measure of guidance but there is little similarity between the Scotsville and Greyville tracks and the rules of the game will be very different here. The race is really very wide open!
An interesting runner on the evening is Frank Robinson’s Imperia Stride gelding, Eddie Sweat. The progressive 3yo is in under sufferance here but is on the way up having won his last two starts with ease and gets his chance to show his paces as a sprinter at feature level.
He shed his maiden over 1400m but his three subsequent wins have been at 1000m, producing a late burst and he should conceivably be a major threat from the 3 draw. The engagement of Anthony Delpech will also be a huge plus factor…
Always Happy
Happy Forever needs to overcome a poor draw
Joint topweight Happy Forever finished best of those that line up here from the Golden Horse Sprint when running a 2,60 length fourth behind Normanz in the big Gr1 sprint on 24 May.
Joey Ramsden’s smart Var gelding showed great pace there and only had two smart sorts in Red Ray and Whiteline Fever ahead of him.
Behind him of those he bumps on Friday were Regal Eagle (0,85 lengths), Mr Whatever(5,90 lengths) and Tevez (6,35 lengths) and he meets all three of those on a kilo better terms.
Happy Forever produced two very good efforts in Johannesburg prior to the Golden Horse. He beat Here Comes Billy by 1,25 lengths in the Gr2 Senor Santa Handicap and then only faded late when fifth and 4 lengths behind Copper Parade in the Gr1 Computaform Sprint. While the draw is a factor, he has the gate speed and the jockey aboard to overcome that negative and must be regarded as a huge contender.
Lady Trio
There are three females in the race. They all ran in the recent SA Fillies Sprint, and that race may provide an interesting measure. Justin Snaith rates Varikate, who won her penultimate start over 1000m at Greyville.
She finished best of the three girls in the May Gr1 at Scottsville and is 6kgs better off with All Is Secret whom she beat a short head, and 4kgs better off with Miss October, who was a half length behind her. All Is Secret has not been herself at her two recent starts but Anton Marcus sticks with her and she is a serious runner at best.
Feature Strike
Tevez needs to find best form
Mike Bass has engaged top jockey Sean Cormack and will be feeling a lot stronger after Saturday’s r2 success. Tevez ran a poor race finishing close on ten lengths back in the Golden Horse but had excuses as he hit the rail. The son of Caesour looks much better than a three time winner and deserves another chance on best form.
Frustrating
Dean Kannemeyer’s frustrating galloper Divne Jet is battling to find his best form but will be fit enough to produce a good effort. He ran unplaced over 1450m last time and is a horse that generally finds an excuse to get beaten. He has been touted as the best non Gr1 winner that Kannemeyer has trained and the combination won the race in 2011 with Splash Gold.
Best Draw
Kingston Boy has grabbed the best draw and ran on nicely last time in a handicap behind Coffee Sheik. The course and distance winner is lightly raced. Mark Dixon’s Showmetheway is drawn on the wide outside and showed a flicker of his old form last time when running on well behind Gulf Storm over the Clairwood 1200m. It is a race where punters should go as wide as possible.
What’s In A Name?
The promising Northfields Stud bred Eddie Sweat has an interesting name. Edward “Eddie” Sweat (1939 – 1998) was an American groom who was the subject of the 2006 book by Lawrence Scanlan, titled The Horse God Built: Secretariat, His Groom, Their Legacy. Born in Holly Hill, South Carolina, Eddie Sweat was one of nine children of a sharecropper.
Holly Hill was where future U.S. Racing Hall of Fame trainer Lucien Laurin maintained a Thoroughbred horse farm and he offered Sweat a job after he saw the wide-eyed teen frequently peeking at the horses through a fence to the property and sometimes skipping school just to watch the horses.
In 1957, at age eighteen, Sweat accepted the offer of full-time work as groom for the Laurin stable of racehorses with a small fixed salary plus 1% of the horse’s earnings. One of the first highly successful horses placed in Sweat’s care was the 1958 American Champion Two-Year-Old Filly Quill.
In 1966, Sweat was part of the Laurin stables’ first American Classic win when Amberoid captured the Belmont Stakes. Six years later, Sweat gained national media attention for his abilities when sportswriter William Nack spent many hours with him during 1972 and 1973 outside the Laurin stable stalls of Kentucky Derby winner Riva Ridge and Secretariat.
In a Sports Illustrated feature article, Nack said he took notes compulsively, endlessly, feeling for the texture of the life around the horse. Secretariat was voted the 1972 American Horse of the Year, an extraordinary feat for a two-year-old, and leading up to and through the horse’s winning of the 1973 Triple Crown, all of the key people involved with Secretariat received massive national and international attention.
Interviewed and photographed countless times, Sweat appeared on television and was on the covers of both Ebony and Jet magazines. Eddie was also the 1st groom to ever have groomed Kentucky Derby winners two years in a row, Riva Ridge in 1972 and Secretariat in 1973.
Following Lucien Laurin’s retirement, Sweat worked for his son, Roger Laurin, and in 1984 once again received considerable national media attention with Chief’s Crown. The colt won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, was accorded the Eclipse Award as American Champion Two-Year-Old Colt, and was the betting favourite for all three of the 1985 Triple Crown races.
There is a life-size statue at the Kentucky Horse Park of Eddie Sweat leading Secretariat and jockey Ron Turcotte to the winner’s circle after winning the 1973 Popular culture. After 41 years in the business, he died of leukemia in 1998.
