Gr3 Cape Nursery – Depardieu

Depardieu records his second success after winning the Gr3 Cape Classic at Kenilworth on Saturday

Depardieu made best use of a very considerable pull at the weights to gun down a couple of very talented fellow three-year-olds and record his second Graded race success in the Cape Classic over 1400m at Kenilworth (winter course) on Saturday.  The colt had won the Gr3 Cape Nursery back in May, writes MATTHEW LIPS.

Only nine lined up for this conditions event, but the race marked the seasonal debut and the first appearance in Cape Town of last season’s unbeaten champion two-year-old colt Delago Deluxe, who was starting for the first time since he won the Gr 1 Gold Medallion at Scottsville some five months earlier.  Also in the field was Gimmethegreenlight, who was placed twice in Gr 1 races at Greyville in July despite having very little luck in either of them.  Delago Deluxe went off as the 19/10 favourite from an opening call of even money, with Gimmethegreenlight and Depardieu the joint 5/2 second favourites.  The latter was also the only one of the “big three” in the market to have raced this term and was in fact making his third appearance of the season, which no doubt contributed to the market support which saw his price trimmed from an opening call of 7/2.

Gimmethegreenlight adopted frontrunning tactics for the first time in his career and came across from the widest draw to set a fairly ordinary pace from Great Fox and Jungle Ruler, with Delago Deluxe eventually settling into fourth spot after an alert start.  Depardieu and Soweto Slew were next in line as Solar Captain brought up the rear.  Gimmethegreenlight was still travelling strongly coming to the final 200m, where Delago Deluxe was struggling to get into top gear wider out, but in contrast to the favourite Depardieu was making very smooth headway.  With Delago Deluxe not producing much by way of a finishing kick the Cape Classic became a match in two over the final 100m or so, with Depardieu delivered at the perfect time by Karl Neisius to wear down Gimmethegreenlight in the final stages and go on to win by about a neck from the very gallant frontrunner.

Delago Deluxe was two lengths further away in third, a neck ahead of Great Fox, who had every chance but who just wasn’t good enough for some very talented rivals despite receiving lumps of weight from all three of those that beat him.  Delago Deluxe is entitled to come on from this run, but the Australian-bred son of Encosta de Lago showed plenty of speed when winning his four races as a juvenile and it would come as no surprise if he turns out to be at his best over sprint distances.  His performance brought back vague memories of Warm White Night, another outstanding Jooste colour-bearer who failed to show his best form beyond the short cuts and who reverted to being a top class sprinter.  It may be a bit too early to say that Delago Deluxe falls conclusively into the same bracket, but this wasn’t really the performance of a probable Guineas winner even allowing for the fact that he gave the winner 4.5 kgs and the runner-up 1 kg.

The 3.5 kgs which Depardieu received from Gimmethegreenlight made all the difference and the two will of course meet at level weights should they both find themselves in the Cape Guineas during the summer.  The two outings which Depardieu had already had this season could also have given him a fitness edge, but he is a smart colt and the way he finished the race off on Saturday suggests he may well cope with the additional 200m of races like the Selangor Cup and the Guineas.

Winners of the Cape Classic have gone on to land the Cape Guineas, not least Solo Traveller just one season ago, and while Depardieu still has something to find on paper he may yet emerge as a genuine classic contender.   He has always been held in high regard, and indeed would have been exported to Singapore some time ago had he not been found to be a carrier of pyro plasmosis, a condition which has no effect on Depardieu’s health but which automatically barred him from entering that island nation.  He will need to do still more than this to be a serious Guineas contender whichever way you look at it, but he promises to have considerably more to come and he is an intriguing prospect for the Cape summer season.

Depardieu is trained by Dean Kannemeyer, a man with a splendid record in Cape Town’s premier three-year-old 1600m races, and will be bidding to follow in the footsteps of such Guineas-winning stable companions as Express Way and Le Drakkar.  Gimmethegreenlight is very much alive as a Guineas hope after this performance and represents the Justin Snaith yard which won that race with Solo Traveller last term.  Curiously, Mike Bass has never won a Cape Guineas, but one has to have one’s doubts that Delago Deluxe is the horse to finally plug that particular gap in his trainer’s outstanding CV.  Time will tell.

Depardieu is a son of Italian and German Guineas winner Dupont out of the Stakes placed Trigger Finger mare Diva, who won six races over 1200/1600m and who is a half sister to champion Winter Solstice.  This is also the family of such recent Gr 1 winners as Mother Russia and Bravura, so it is easy to argue that Depardieu has all the pedigree needed for 1600m.  Depardieu is another excellent product of Veronica Foulkes’ Normandy Stud and has won three times from six starts, earning stakes of R298 035 for his owners Markus Jooste and Bernard Kantor.

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