Majmu en route to the UK
Mike De Kock’s champion filly Majmu is set to be retired to stud following her run in Saturday’s Vodacom Durban July.
Mike de Kock commented on Sunday: “It is Majmu’s owner Sheikh Hamdan’s policy to retire all his fillies to stud at the end of their three-year-old careers. She is due to be exported to Shadwell in the UK to take up her duties as a broodmare.
“We will, however, be discussing Majmu’s future with Sheikh Hamdan. She has racing left in her, we had a few setbacks with her prior to feature races here so while she’s won two Gr1’s I believe her record could have reflected more.”
Majmu finished ninth in the ‘July’ beaten 5.25-lengths and Mike commented: “She got into a challenging position and just didn’t kick on as strong as we expected. She had a good preparation, she pulled up physically fine after the race, there are no excuses. Perhaps she is simply at her best up to a mile. We’ve always reckoned she’d easily stay well beyond a mile but maybe we were wrong as she didn’t produce what we expected over 2000m and 2200m.”
Didn’t Fire
The stable’s other July runner Pine Princess was beaten almost 14 lengths and Mike said: “She also pulled up well, but just didn’t fire. The three-year-olds weren’t well handicapped but that said they were disappointing all the same.”
Australian-bred two-year-old filly Almashooqa (AUS) posted a good second in the Gr1 Golden Slipper over 1400m and Mike said that a Dubai campaign has been earmarked for her – she will be aimed at the 2016 Carnival.
Another Aussie-bred, Muwaary, gave a decent account in the Gr1 Golden Horseshoe beaten only 1.55-lengths into seventh – he will remain in South Africa and Mike commented: “Muwaary was drawn wide, you’re dead in the water from an outside draw at Greyville so he did very well to finish so close. He’ll be better over further, this was too short. I don’t think the Dubai sand will suit Muwaary, he is a classic horse with staying potential and we’ll race him here at home next season.”
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