Well, it has been a funny old week, full of ups and downs. Sadly more downs than ups. Sometimes some difficult decisions have to be taken, writes Joey Ramsden.
I would like to congratulate the whole Bass Racing Team on the superb performance of Silver Mountain. We were lucky enough to train the dam, Our Table Mountain. We won a few races with her, including some Listed races.
She was quite a good filly with a beautiful pedigree and it is no surprise to see her produce something as beastly good as the winner we saw on Saturday.
Silver Mountain is a total and utter machine. I think we have been lucky down here in the Western Cape to see two extraordinary individuals, both in the colts and the fillies ranks.
CTS Ready To Run winner Budapest
The CTS Ready to Run winner is no slouch and this filly is as good as anything I have seen in many a year. Will they clash?
We will have to wait and see but obviously the Million dollar race will probably end up being Silver Mountain’s target, having got Grade 1 black type under her belt.
The big money will be difficult to turn down even for an industrious man like Dr Andreas Jacobs.
A couple of the other feature races were interesting, producing some decent results.
Carry On Alice is really as hard as nails. She travels here, there and everywhere and always puts in her best performance. She really is something out of the top drawer but I think it is her heart that makes her the special one that she is.
It is typical of the progeny of Captain Al.
Gallica Rose – slow starter but has come on leaps and bounds
We have quite a nice week’s racing ahead with the Victress Stakes and we have a filly in that called Gallica Rose.
She is a lot like Carry On Alice in that she also started life off slowly and blossomed into a Grade 2 filly.
Justin Vermaak
I think if one had told racing manager, Justin Vermaak, that is what she would have ended up as he would have fallen over backwards. However, she keeps getting better and fingers crossed it keeps happening this season.
Monday morning, as always, was busy here and we had quite an interesting group of people at the yard who do skits for the internet and television.
Jonathan (Rikus de Beer) and his crew from Radio Raps are doing something entertaining on the J&B Met.
They mostly do it in Afrikaans so I could be in a little trouble when it comes to them talking to me. I have a basic understanding but when I am having the mickey taken out of me, I could be way out of my depth. I am not looking forward to the next half hour.
It is not often one sees the powerful Mike de Kock stable come down and finish up blank in the two main feature races.
I wonder if with that wonderful and infallible thing called hindsight, he would not have wanted to swap his pair of runners around.
Entisaar
Entisaar did not quite fire but is plainly better than that and I am sure once she has settled in down here, we will get to see the best of her. Noor, who ran in the Fillies Guineas, just looked totally outpaced and was run off her feet the whole way. We are sure to see more of her again.
Fillies Guineas day was lovely weather-wise and a smashing day. There was a rather strange man entertaining the children – and some of the adults. He certainly would not be one for my kid’s parties.
There is great racing ahead, not just here but everywhere. We have King of Pain coming up for his second run. Everyone at the yard loves him and we are hoping to see some of his old form. I was extremely happy with his sprint up last time out.
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