Antious - very good sprinter
Antious is turning into a seriously good sprinter and recorded his second Gr2 success of the season when running out a very easy winner of the Senor Santa Hcp over 1160m at Turffontein (standside) on Saturday, writes MATTHEW LIPS.
The KZN-trained gelding clearly likes Johannesburg as his previous Stakes win came in the Merchants over the same course-and-distance last November.
An impressive recent win (albeit on very favourable weight terms) in a conditions race at Clairwood showed Antious to be in fine fettle and he went off as the 22/10 favourite in a field of 11 for the Senor Santa. Ante-post favourite Gibraltar Blue drifted from an opening call of 16/10 to start at 28/10, with Paella (6/1) and Midnight Serenade (15/2) both attracting support at longer prices.
The stable companions Jackodore and Polar Moon showed plenty of early dash and showed the way ahead of Gibraltar Blue and Paella, with Captain Harry and Furious Dancer further back. As always, Antious was held up early and raced several lengths off the speed, but he began to make very good progress from around 400m out and was soon right in contention. Polar Moon began to feel the pinch more than 200m from home, and while Jackodore fared considerably better she ultimately proved to be little match for Antious, who strode away over the last 100m or so to beat her by 2.5 lengths. Jackodore came out easily second best as it was 2.25 lengths further back to Rebel Knight, who stayed on steadily to just edge Polar Moon (winner of this race in 2011) out of third place. Paella and Midnight Serenade finished eighth and tenth respectively, after never seriously challenging.
Antious has continued to improve since he was gelded in May of last year. He finished fifth in his first appearance as a gelding in July, but has not been defeated from five outings since and the way he won this shows that the Argentine-bred import is very much on an upward curve. Antious was ridden by Keagan Latham, who has opted to stay in South Africa this year after spending the last several European seasons campaigning in Ireland. “We will start looking for the bigger sprints,” noted Latham.
This view was echoed by Frank Robinson, who trains Antious in partnership with Herman Brown, when he suggested that the Gr1 Golden Horse Casino Sprint over 1200m at Scottsville in late May would probably be his gelding’s next mission, rather than the Gr1 Computaform Sprint over 1000m at Turffontein a month earlier. Antious has however won a couple of minor races over 1600m, and connections have not ruled out another try at that distance, but the four-year-old has an obvious talent for sprinting and in the short term that is how he will be campaigned.
Antious is a son of Pure Prize out of the USA-bred Affirmed mare Adira. He has won seven times from 17 starts, for stakes of R769 433.
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Senor Santa Hcp (SAf-G2) (4/7)
Turffontein, South Africa, April 7, R300.000, 1160m, turf, good, 1.06.74 (CR 1.05.12).
ANTIOUS (ARG), 58.0, ch g 4, Pure Prize – Adira by Affirmed. Owner R Bifov; breeder Haras Carampangue (ARG); trainer H J Brown; jockey K Latham (R187.500)
Jackodore (SAF), 54.0, b f 3, Toreador (IRE) – I’m Alright Jack (SAF) by Shoe Danzig
Rebel Knight (SAF), 59.5, b c 5, Jet Master (SAF) – Darby Game (SAF) by Elliodor (FR)
Margins: 2½, 2¼, nose
Also ran: Polar Moon (SAF) 55.0, Gibraltar Blue (IRE) 59.5, Furious Dancer (SAF) 54.0, Captain Harry (SAF) 54.5, Paella (SAF) 52.5, Count Express (SAF) 52.0, Midnight Serenade (SAF) 54.0, Smanjemanje (SAF) 60.0
