The Great Grey Hope – King Of Pain takes on the big guns
We have just finished the fast work for Saturday’s runners and all looks in reasonable order. We do have a couple which are coughing so we will keep an eye on that but the main runners all seem ok. At present I am busy hugging my tree.
As always when one thinks it is going to be quiet, it never is. We have been on a couple of TV panels. There was one over the weekend with Tellytrack for the J&B Met. The panel included myself, Andrew Fortune, Brett Crawford and Vee Moodley with Clyde Basel presenting. It was good fun. Pippa Mickleburgh asked me and a few others to do something for the Cape Breeders seminar to which I agreed. This involved sitting on a couch in an extremely hot shed in Somerset West.
One thing is for certain: if John McVeigh keeps on sweating like that, he will be down below the 100kg mark in no time at all. I have never seen a man sweat like that before – and it had nothing to do with the tricky questions he was being asked. It was a good panel with Mike Azzie, John McVeigh, Andrew Fortune – yet again, Badgers Bloodstock and our old friend, Tom Goff. Grant Knowles did an exceedingly good job of chairing it and I personally feel he is an extremely underrated television presenter.
Talking of television presenters, Fee has been doing an excellent job. It is quite tricky getting to actually watch her as I am usually running around listening to either good or bad news and watching my own runners. I then have to think of reasonable explanations to make afterwards: win, lose or draw. Hopefully I will get to see more of Fee this weekend. I feel the new girl in PE, Nadine Rapson, is absolutely superb and she could well be a television star in the making. Personally I don’t think I would just restrict her to racing as I think she has a lovely tone of voice, seems to know her onions and really looks at home in front of the camera. Well done to whoever found her. Here follows my review of this year’s J&B Met; take it, leave it or lose it. It is merely my thoughts on the runners and it is only ever a bit of fun.
The Met looks wide open!
If I hear 1) JACKSON one more time, I might well throw myself over the edge of a cliff. However, on merit ratings alone, he looks to be the one to beat. His 14 draw is a bit of a worry. I feel if he is given the right ride, he can run to his rating and overcome it but the question is what is that correct ride? We all have our own thoughts, I am sure.
By winning this year’s Queen’s Plate 2) CAPETOWN NOIR did have everything go his way, with a nice draw and little headwind in a slow run race. I am not sure if they go hard that he will get the 10 furlongs, despite having won the Derby. Talking of Derby winners, the Johannesburg Derby winner 3) WYLIE HALL takes his line up here and with a good effort last time out looks as if he is coming back to his best. How good is that Johannesburg form? Having said that, the Summer Cup winner 4) YORKER is here, owned by our great supporters in Mr Kantor, Mr Jooste and Mr Lewis. It wasn’t a bad effort in the Queen’s Plate. He had everything go his way in the Summer Cup and the 10 furlongs looks well within his limits. He has the 2 draw and Robbie Fradd up. The interesting question is: Did Anton have the choice? Would he rather be on 7) HILL FIFTY FOUR or 4) YORKER? That must surely be the million dollar question.
5) MASTER OF MY FATE is a horse that everyone has been talking about all season and from his form, one can see why. I thought he was impressive last time out in the Peninsula Handicap when he won from a tricky draw. He is not badly drawn at 9 and Saturday will show us how good he really is.
6) WHITELINE FEVER’s run in the Queen’s Plate was a plucky effort but there has been lots of talk about him not being quite as good over 10 furlongs as he is over a little bit less. However, he doesn’t have bad form over the 2000m and could well pop up in an open event. 7) HILL FIFTY FOUR after having bled in Durban, has had 3 promising comeback runs. He has the master, Anton Marcus, up who seems to make light of wide draws. 8) ROYAL ZULU WARRIOR is a horse down from Johannesburg, despite being Durban based. He is well drawn and has Karl Zechner up. It was a reasonable effort in the Queen’s Plate but is he as good over 10 furlongs? 9) ICE MACHINE ran well below par in his last start in the Queen’s Plate but he was reported to be coughing afterwards. He has a good draw here. A sneaker?
10) JET EXPLORER ran on from last in the Queen’s Plate and put in an extremely good effort. He, like 9) ICE MACHINE and the next horse I am going to talk about, look very closely matched. 11) KING OF PAIN, bred at Arc en Ciel by Messrs Carey and Ramsden, has done nothing wrong this season. His Queen’s Plate run had steam coming out of Bernard’s ears due to the amount of interference he received. Bernard is a half full type of guy and is convinced he would have finished much, much closer? Bernard is quietly ticking and confident. Let’s hope it is justified but there is very little to choose between no’s 9) ICE MACHINE, 10) JET EXPLORER and 11) KING OF PAIN. We discounted Yogas Govender last year at our peril and it would be foolish to do so again this year but the no 16 draw of 12) LAKE ARTHUR looks to be a problem. 13) NO WORRIES has plenty to worry about from the 18 draw but Strydom is in the irons and I know exactly what this man is capable of doing, as I know to my own peril. 14) MASTER SABINA is a Jet Master down from Johannesburg. His Summer Cup 2nd says it all and he should surely turn the tables on 4) YORKER. He has a good draw and big race rider Raymond Danielson up.
15) HOT TICKET doesn’t look quite good enough and the 17 draw is a major handicap. 16) PUNTA ARENAS has been sliding down the handicap but it does not help him for this year’s Met. The 13 draw makes life extremely awkward for him. Despite running 2nd in the Peninsula Handicap last time out, one wouldn’t think 17) AWESOME POWER is quite good enough. 18) DO YOU REMEMBER, whilst beating our Blueridge Mountain in Natal even though we felt we had been hard done by that day, is clearly useful with her 3rd in the July. With her sex allowance, who knows? However, it was a disappointing run behind Beach Beauty her first run here in the Cape. Right, it is selection time. I am going to go with our own 11) KING OF PAIN to beat 10) JET EXPLORER and 9) ICE MACHINE. It looks an extremely open race with 5) MASTER OF MY FATE finishing somewhere in amongst them. However, because I like my own 11) KING OF PAIN, I also have to like the other two so I have 5) MASTER OF MY FATE running 4th.
We will be yelling for 11) KING OF PAIN. Long live the KING! Let’s hope he does remember to enter the room first this time.
– Joey Ramsden
