The R400 000 Gr2 Victory Moon Stakes is the traditional last chance saloon for a few Sansui Summer Cup hopefuls. With a few marginals in no-man’s land, the Turffontein feature today is bound to be a hotly contested affair and looks a trappy race at best.
Heavy Metal could find his winning turn today
With most of the field nicely suited to the 1800m of the Turffontein standside track, a grandstand finish is anticipated with a toxic mix of locals and raiders to up the interest.
Cape raiders Hot Ticket and Disco Al have been withdrawn, which brings reserve runners Fulcrum and Platinum Jet into the line-up.
Judicial – won last year but carries top weight
Last year’s winner Judicial is joint topweight and the Tyrone Zackey trained son of Miesque’s Approval will be ridden by SA champion apprentice Craig Zackey. He has run only six times since winning last year’s Victory Moon Stakes. He also won a Pinnacle Stakes race over the same course and distance in July in his last outing.
He came off a similar break last year, so there is no reason to believe he will be ring rusty. However, he is drawn wide.
Rampant Ice is at 13 on the Summer Cup log. The son of Go Deputy will be ridden by Weichong Marwing for his brother Weiho.
He together with St John Gray’s Yer-Maan, who will have Irishman Pat Cosgrave in the saddle, are the highest rated gallopers in the field.
There was some interest in Rampant Ice in the Charity Mile hut he failed to fire and ran disappointingly downfield. He did finish fourth behind French Navy in the Daily News 2000 last season and could prefer this 200m longer distance.
Yer-Maan
Seven-year-old Yer-Maan, a Grade 1 winner in Zimbabwe this year, needed his last run after a layoff but is another runner drawn wide.
KZN-based Paul Lafferty is set to run Double Clutch, the mount of Piere Strydom. He finished a close sixth behind Disco Al in the 2400m Derby and meets his rival on 1kg better terms.
Sean Tarry’s trio of Whiteline Fever (being tried without the blinkers) , July winner Heavy Metal and gallant recent Algoa Cup winner Stonehenge will be thereabouts at best.
Heavy Metal is drawn best of the trio and with stable jockey S’manga Khumalo in the irons and he is threatening to bounce back with peak fitness only weeks away.
He is another who needs a big showing for the Summer Cup.
Geoff Woodruff had no luck with the draw with Killua Castle but his progressive Trippi gelding Deo Juvente could be a prospect off a galloping 53kgs. The 4yo has good consistent form.
Mike Azzie’s Prince Of Orange is well drawn and ran a forward race behind the promising Toro Ross. He looks to have plenty in his favour and could be the dark horse.
The Moon Remembered
Princess Victoria
Saturday’s Turffontein feature is named after Maine Chance Farms based stallion Victory Moon, who died suddenly in 2009.
The handsome and supremely talented son of Al Mufti, described as a racehorse who changed many people’s lives, helped to reaffirm South Africa’s position on the world racing map with a win in the 2003 UAE Derby – and was a fast emerging and exciting sire when his life was cut short.
Victory Moon was bred in South Africa by Litchfield Stud Closed Corporation and foaled in 1999.
He was out of the winning Dancing Champ mare Dancing Flower and won or placed in 10 of 13 races, earning $2,414,974 in his career. He raced for the Mad Syndicate and was trained by both Mike de Kock and Dean Maroun.
His death came at a time when he was starting to shape as a stallion.
Victory Moon left a legacy of four crops.
Corne Spies’ War Horse – ill fated Gr1 winning son of Victory Moon
He covered 130 of 140 booked mares in his fourth and final season and Maine Chance’s John Slade said at the time: “He was bought for R5 million at Mike de Kock and Dean Maroun’s dispersal sale but he recovered that quickly, covering more than 100 mares a season for four seasons. His death is a great loss – not only to us, but to the South African breeding fraternity as a whole”.
Victory Moon’s standout performers include the Glen Kotzen-trained multiple Gr1 winning Princess Victoria, Corne Spies’ Gr1 Golden Horseshoe winner War Horse, Gr2 SA Fillies Nursery winner Hidden Beauty, Gr2 The Debutante winner Straight Set, Gr3 Cape Of Good Hope Nursery winning Nocturnal Affair and the hardknocking Gr1 placer and eight-time winner, Blaze Of Fire, who won the Listed Ibhayi Stakes for Yvette Bremner.
