Pocket Power became the 1st horse in 29 years to win the J&B Met (SAF-G1) for a second time, following Politician’s wins in 1978/79. Pocket Power scored another notable double both this year and last, by winning the Queen’s Plate (SAF-G1) and J&B Met (SAF-G1), the two main races of the Cape Summer season in the space of 5 weeks. Pocket Power, ridden as usual by jockey Bernard Fayd’herbe, came with his customary late burst of speed to overhaul the leaders and score comfortably. “He thought he’d done enough when he hit the front and started loafing, so I had to remind him, to which he responded well. We won easily.”
Pocket Power, who started a short-priced favorite, races for the partnership of owners Shirtliff and Webber, who were the buyer and underbidder respectively when the horse was sold as a yearling. Webber acquired a half share after the sale.
Trained by Mike Bass in Cape Town, Pocket Power was bred at Zandvliet in Robertson, a farm known as much for its fine wines as thoroughbreds. The 5yo gelding is the 3rd J&B Met winner produced by Zandvliet, following Peter Beware (1968) and Wild West (1985).
Pocket Power’s dam Stormsvlei won 3 up to 1400m, and is a half sister to G1-winning sprinter Harry’s Echoe. The mare has produced 6 winners to date, of which Pocket Power and his full sister River Jetez are the only stakes winners. The pair were sired by SA’s Champion Sire Jet Master, who earned that title for the first time in 2007, remarkably with just three crops racing. Jet Master, a multiple G1-winner in his own career, was voted Horse of the Year, as was Prince Florimund, the sire of Pocket Power’s dam Stormsvlei. Following his SA successes, Prince Florimund competed in the USA under Charlie Whittingham’s care, in the days of John Henry.
Pocket Power has now won 10 of his 20 lifetime starts, incl. 8 Graded races (of which 4 G1), for earnings of R3m. He was SA’s Horse of the Year in 2007 and looks well on his way to similar honours for this season, which ends in July.
Goodbye Politician, hello Pocket Power. The former’s 29 year reign as the last horse to win the J&B Met twice ended on a hot sunny afternoon at Kenilworth last Saturday, when Pocket Power successfully defended his title in the Cape’s premier horse race and ensured his place in the history books. It was widely expected, of course, but as Mythical Flight showed us in no uncertain fashion just one week earlier, it ain’t never over ‘til the fat lady yelps. The proverbial obese woman may have sung her lungs out as Pocket Power scooted past the line at the head of the Met field, but any musically-inclined bookmakers would have been thinking more in terms of a funeral dirge. This result cost them a fortune as Pocket Power, wonderfully treated by the changed weight conditions of the Met, started as the 7/10 favourite.
No degree in rocket design was needed to work out that Pocket Power had plenty going for him, especially since Gold Circle were kind enough to change the weights structure of the Met from the cumulative penalties of old to a system of basic WFA plus a once-off penalty for any Graded races won. This had a concertina effect on the weights, and Pocket Power found himself conceding less weight to his rivals than would have been the case hitherto. This was ostensibly done to try and make it more feasible for a proven star to win the race, but cynics will choose to think that it may have had more to do with the fact that the old system rewarded those horses that hadn’t already accumulated maximum penalties and who conveniently lost their lead-up races, at least until the Met weights were finalised. You only have to cast your mind back to some of the allegations which flew thick and fast in the run-up to previous Mets to get the drift.
Pocket Power had unleashed a truly awesome turn of foot when he won the Gr 1 L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate for a second time in late December and was always going to be a tough nut to crack in the big one. The last time he was beaten in a race around the turn at Kenilworth was way back when he was still a maiden, and it’s hardly surprising that he was an odds-on chance to win the Met again. The likes of Pick Six, Succesful Bidder and Floatyourboat attracted some interest from those who saw no value in the favourite, while Buy And Sell was tickled up at big prices, but most pundits would have agreed that it was up to Pocket Power to get himself beaten. This he splendidly did not do.
Likeithot set a brisk pace early and showed the way from Pick Six and Wonder Lawn, with Our Giant and Buy And Sell next in line. Floatyourboat, Succesful Bidder and Bill Of Rights were further back as Pocket Power settled down about two-thirds of the way down the 17 runner field. Biarritz as always was towards the rear, with Silver Mist last of all. The pace seemed to cool down a little between the turns, but the order of running underwent no significant changes and Likeithot was still in front sweeping into the 600m straight. Floatyourboat began to launch his challenge inside the last 400m, with Our Giant and Buy And Sell both very much in contention as Likeithot began to give way. Pick Six folded tamely from 300m out and would eventually finish last, but starting to loom large in the mirrors was Pocket Power.
Switched to the outside of the leading bunch to secure a clear run, Pocket Power was visibly going great guns more than 200m from home and soon put the issue to rest. He swept to the lead well inside the final furlong and in the end had something still in reserve as he won by 1.25 lengths under Bernard Fayd’Herbe, a rider not given to extravagant displays of emotion but who couldn’t resist a jubilant victory salute as Pocket Power romped into history.
Our Giant fought all the way to the line and was rewarded with second place, but was simply no match for the winner even in receipt of 2.5 kgs. Hunting Tower ran on well from off the pace to finish a further 3-parts of a length away, making it a 2-3 finish for the Charles Laird stable. Buy And Sell showed his disappointing Queen’s Plate effort to have been all wrong by finishing only another short head behind Hunting Tower in 4th and would just about have won (at least in theory) if the old Met weights had been applied. Floatyourboat was beaten a total of 2.30 lengths into 5th, with Silver Mist running on well from the rear to in turn be another short head behind that. Neither of this pair was done any favours by the new-look conditions of the race, to put it mildly, and Silver Mist in particular would have had a real chance of winning if he had run to this form under the previous system.
Still, let’s not waste any more time wondering what the outcome might have been if things had stayed the way they were. We will never know, anyway, and it doesn’t matter. Aside from bookies and the connections of rival runners, most racing enthusiasts will have been delighted to see a true-blue champion win the Met instead of some one-off hero looking for his 15 minutes of fame. We are lucky that Pocket Power is still here, and hopefully here he will remain. Winning trainer Mike Bass (a master at the big race game who just gets better and better at it), there have never been any real plans to export Pocket Power, but the possibility was not altogether ruled out when he was asked what future plans were for his champion. The other alternatives obviously are another KZN winter campaign and/or an assault on the big money races of the forthcoming Gauteng Feature season, but we all know how difficult it is to raid Johannesburg from Cape Town and more than one horse’s career has never recovered from it.
Pocket Power has all the attributes of a champion. He can switch off in a race, accelerate as if shot from a cannon, and know when he’s done enough. “He pulled me through but then started to get lazy,” said Fayd’Herbe, “and I had to give him a bit of a hard ride before he picked it up again.” Well, he picked it up all right, and really in the end was in a different division to the strongest field of older horses that could have been found to oppose him. It is redundant to remark that Pocket Power is the best middle distance horse in SA, but it sounds good so we’ll say it anyway.
Pocket Power is co-owned by Marsh Shirtliff and Mr and Mrs Arthur Webber. “Have you ever seen an old man cry?” was the almost-speechless Shirtliff’s 1st remark in his post-race interview. “Marsh is becoming a legend,” added Mike Bass, and we cannot argue with that, before adding that “Bernard rode a great race.” Agreed on that point, too.
It was back in the gloomy days of March 2004 that Pocket Power was acquired from the Cape Summer Yearling Sale at Durbanville. The equine influenza epidemic had just swept through most of the land, the Cape summer season had been lost in almost its entirety, and cash for new horses was so scarce that black humour abounded about depressed breeders hanging themselves from the trees which surround the country course. It was a buyers’ market deluxe, if you had anything to spend, and in the circumstances it took a considerable leap of faith for Bass to spend R190 000 on a colt by a first season sire. 190k may not sound like much in an era of telephone number prices, but in that time and place it was a hefty sum and indeed amounted to the 2nd highest price of the sale. Dan de Wet, who bred Pocket Power at his Zandvliet, would have been only too happy to cash the cheque.
The first season sire was, of course, Jet Master. His progeny may have made their sales debut in depressed circumstances, but they have done so much ever since to enliven the South African racing scene. None more so, of course, than Pocket Power. Now aged five, the gelded son of Prince Florimund mare Stormsvlei has grabbed one horse-of-the-year title already and is way ahead of the pack in his bid for a second. The 2008 J&B Met marked his 10th win from 20 starts, and elevated his earnings to a massive R4 034 775. Accidents aside, he will add significantly to that sum. The power is nowhere near being exhausted. The rest of us who have to put up with Eskom’s wretched bungling should be so lucky – but that’s another story.
J&B Met (SAf-G1) (1/26)
Kenilworth , SA, January 26, R2m, 2000m, turf, good, 2.04.43 (CR 2.01.00).
POCKET POWER (SAF), 58.0, b c 5, Jet Master (SAF) – Stormsvlei (SAF) by Prince Florimund (SAF). Owner NM Shirtliff and AD Webber; breeder Zandvliet (SAF); trainer MW Bass; jockey B Fayd’herbe (R1.250.000)
Our Giant (AUS), 55.5, ch c 4, Giant’s Causeway – Macrosa (AUS) by McGinty (AUS)
Hunting Tower (SAF), 58.0, ch c 5, Fort Wood – Stirrup Cup (SAF) by Royal Chalice (SAF).
Margins: 1 1/3, ¾, nose
Also ran: Buy And Sell (SAF) 57.5, Floatyourboat (SAF) 58.0, Silver Mist (SAF) 56.0, Wonder Lawn (SAF) 55.5, Succesful Bidder (SAF) 58.0, Appelate Court (SAF) 56.0, Hilgrove (SAF) 56.0, Likeithot (SAF) 56.0, Biarritz (SAF) 55.5, Jagged Ice (SAF) 56.0, Dynamite Mike (SAF) 55.5, Bill Of Rights (SAF) 55.5, Farolito (SAF) 55.5, Pick Six (SAF) 57.5
