Beating The Rain. Gregorian holds off Soft Falling Rain (1)
A potentially massive day turned into a good one in the end. He has gone where no man before him has dared to tread and continues to raise the bar for his colleagues. SA champion trainer Mike De Kock’s three pronged international attack on three different continents this past Saturday ended with a victory and two seconds.
The Apache stepped out in Chicago for the Arlington Million, while the unbeaten Soft Falling Rain went to post at Newbury in the UK for the Hungerford Stakes.
His Turffontein first timer Siddharth was the only one of the three to win.
Soft Falling Rain ended up losing his unbeaten record in Saturday’s Hungerford Stakes at Newbury.
Owned by Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum, Soft Falling Rain was having his first start for 140 days and was sent off the 9-4 favourite to make his first British start a winning one.
However, he went down to the John Gosden-trained Gregorian.
Not that De Kock was too disappointed.
He told At The Races on Sunday: “He gave 2lb to the winner and coming from the southern hemisphere was disadvantaged to the tune of 2lb to 3lb, which was not factored into the weight he carried.
“I thought it was a quality field and there was enough form in Group 1s to say it was a really good field. Like most of our horses with the way we prepare them he will come on with racing.”
De Kock has Soft Falling Rain entered in the Betfred Sprint Cup, the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes and Qipco Champion Stakes.
Ironically it was the lowest profile of his three runners that was to win.
The Tiger Ridge colt Siddharth made his debut in the final race at Turffontein , a Maiden Plate run over 1400m, and registered a promising victory under Marco Van Rensburg after being backed.
The Wilgerbosdrift Stud bred son of Tiger Ridge is owned by the Tiger Ridge Syndicate and is out of the Rich Man’s Gold mare, Aircon, who was also trained by De Kock.
The Apache passed the post first in the Arlington Million, but lost it in the boardroom.
A typically sporting De Kock, who watched the race on the internet in the UK, said: “When I saw the head-on replay of the finish, I knew we were in trouble. There was one movement off the fence and then he kept on going, with his stick in the left hand, it definitely unbalances the other horse. If I had been in their position and got beaten, I’d have felt aggrieved. That’s the game.”
The trainer said he would now aim The Apache at the Qipco Champion Stakes on 19 October.
