Hassen Adams with J&B Met winner Past Master (photo Hamish NIVEN)
Past Master proved to be as versatile as he is talented when he went beyond a mile for the first time in his career and saw out 2000m with no trouble whatsoever to win the J & B Met at Kenilworth on Saturday. This was some performance from a horse who had run away with the Gr 2 Diadem Stakes over 1200m six weeks earlier, even if the Met was by no means a true test of stamina, and for those who had worked long and hard to get Past Master back to his peak after a lengthy injury lay-off the reward of winning Cape Town’s showpiece event was all the sweeter, writes Matthew Lips.
Punters still had their doubts about Past Master, for all the talk that the Met was the race at which he was being aimed for all the positive vibes coming from those who know him best having no doubts in their minds that he would stay 2000m. It was no secret that Past Master was considered to be potentially better than his high class stable companion Noordhoek Flyer when the hero of the 2011 Met was trained by Dean Kannemeyer earlier in his career, and Past Master came to the Met with a merit rating of 114 (joint highest with Pocket Power), but none of this swayed the market into giving him much more than a roughie’s chance of winning on Saturday and he went off as a 16/1 shot.
Mother Russia had been so supremely impressive when winning the Gr 1 L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate three weeks earlier that she was always going to be a popular choice to go one better on her second place finish in the Met of 2010. She started as the strongly supported 15/10 favourite, and so dominant was she in the market that the joint second favourites Bravura, Run For It and Flirtation went off as 15/2 chances. Tales Of Bravery had his backers at 17/2 in his bid to step up on his second place finish behind Mother Russia in the Queen’s Plate. Pocket Power, three times winner of the Met between 2007 and 2009 and having probably his last racecourse appearance (and certainly his last at Kenilworth) was a 10/1 chance.
Fears that the fairly glaring absence of a strong frontrunner in the Met line-up would lead to a slow-run affair proved to be well founded. Tales Of Bravery came across from his wide draw to dispute the lead with Bravura, but they were doing little more than jogging along in the brilliant Cape summer sunshine. Mother Russia and Past Master were directly behind the leaders, with Run For It and Flirtation further back. The Met continued to unfold at a sedate pace between the turns, with Tales Of Bravery just keeping his nose in front of Bravura’s as Mother Russia kept them very much in their sights and Past Master in turn stuck to the favourite’s quarters in what would prove to be a telling fashion.
Things started to go slightly pear-shaped for Mother Russia not long after the sprint for home began. She found herself in a pocket right behind the leaders, and after trying to work her way through a tightening gap she was forced to switch outwards to continue her run. Whether any of this cost her the race we will never know, but by the time she’d extricated herself and found some galloping space the bird had flown. While Mother Russia was finding herself in a spot of bother and trying to dig her way out, everything fell perfectly into place for Past Master.
Run For It and Tales Of Bravery were still in the hunt coming to the last 200m, but it was Past Master who delivered the best turn of foot to lead just inside the last furlong. Making maximum use of the sort of speed which could win him a big race over 1200m, Past Master quickened in fine style at just the right time and ran on very well to the line under Gerrit Schlechter to win by 1.25 lengths from the chasing Mother Russia. The favourite gave it all she had once she found room to manoeuvre, but Past Master’s decisive burst of speed had already won him the race and Mother Russia could only chase in vain before settling for another second place finish in the Met. It is debatable whether Mike de Kock’s mare can be classified as an unlucky loser, but there is no doubt that things didn’t fall at all well for her while everything went peachy fine for Past Master. The latter had quickened clear of any potential traffic trouble at just the right time, and that was more than enough to make the world of difference.
J&B Met: Runaway win for Past Master (photo David Campbell)
Sole three-year-old Run For It couldn’t match the finishing kick of the winner or the runner-up and would doubtless have preferred a stronger pace, but he was a long way from disgraced in finishing three-quarters of a length behind Mother Russia in third. Tales Of Bravery was a similar margin further adrift in fourth, but Bravura didn’t find a great deal from halfway down the straight and weakened rather tamely out of contention. The slow pace would have been the kiss-of-death for Flirtation, who could on paper never hope to beat stable companion Mother Russia at the weights anyway judged on their form in the Gr 1 Sansui Summer Cup. She finished second last in a field reduced to 16 when Paddy O’Reilly was declared a non-runner after being impeded in the stalls. It says something about the way in which the race was run that less than nine lengths covered the entire field at the finish.
Pocket Power didn’t really quicken after racing in around midfield the whole way and finished eighth, 4.65 lengths behind the winner. In truth this was not a bad effort considering that the People’s Champion would also have been done no favours whatsoever by the crawl-and-sprint manner in which the race was run. It was obviously not the big send-off that his countless fans would have liked to see, and it is a great pity that he was never really given the chance to show what he can still do in a race which was run to suit horses racing close to the pace rather than those who sit well off the action. He owes nobody anything, that’s for sure, and it is debatable whether Pocket Power really has come to end of the road.
It took some nifty riding from Gerrit Schlechter to get Past Master so well positioned from his wide draw. “I got him there for nothing,” he said modestly, but in truth this was a terrific ride to find the perfect spot with so little fuss and then take full advantage of the situation as it unfolded. “I sat on him for as long as possible,” Schlechter added, noting that there was plenty more left in Past Master’s tank had he been seriously challenged in the final stages. It has taken ten years, but for Gerrit Schlechter the ghost of his near-miss on Trademark in the 2001 J & B Met, when he was collared very late by stable companion Bunter Barlow in a famous one-two for the Mike Basss yard, has finally been laid to rest.
J&B Met – leading in Past Master
Past Master is trained by Darryl Hodgson, who sported an out-sized bowtie that would have looked great on TV, but as usual Hodgson proved almost as elusive to interview than Osama bin Laden. Camera-shy he may be, but he is no stranger to winning Gr1 races and this result ensured that every Gr1 of the Cape summer season barring the Queen’s Plate was won by a locally-trained horse. Even Queen’s Plate winner Mother Russia is an ex-Cape horse and whatever ills may or may not affect Western Cape racing, lack of good horses isn’t one of them. Pound for pound, the Cape has the best horseflesh in South Africa by a country mile and one can only hope that whatever emerges from the convoluted politics of horse racing that racing in the Mother City will thrive.
It is perhaps ironical that Past Master is owned by Hassen Adams, a man who has not only invested a fortune in the industry in recent years especially, but a man with some very firm ideas about the direction in which Western Cape racing should take in the immediate future. This is not the time or the place to debate the lamentable state in which Gold Circle finds itself, but Adams combines the sort of business acumen with a passion for the sport of racing which is extremely rare and the industry would be foolish in the extreme to not pay him close attention. Be that as it may, it must have been a rare thrill indeed for the triumphant owner to witness his increasingly familiar royal blue-and-silver colours carried to victory in his hometown’s biggest race and nobody (whether they agree with him on the broader issues or not) can begrudge him this success.
Past Master is a four-year-old gelding by Jet Master, who has now sired the Met winner for a remarkable five years in a row following the multiple successes of Pocket Power and the 2010 victory of River Jetez. He is the first foal of Western Winter mare Early Thaw, whose four career wins all came over 1200m but who is a half sister to 3600m PE Gold Cup winner Palm King. Bred at Hyjo Stud, Past Master was acquired for R375 000 at the 2008 National Yearling Sale and has won five times from only ten starts for R1 919 770 in stakes.
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J&B Met (SAf-G1) (1/29)
Kenilworth, South Africa, January 29, R2.5 million, 2000m, turf, good, 2.05.34 (CR 2.02.10)
PAST MASTER (SAF), 57.5, ch g 4, Jet Master (SAF) – Early Thaw (SAF) by Western Winter. Owner H Adams; breeder Hyjo Stud (SAF); trainer D R Hodgson; jockey G Schlechter (R1.425.000)
Mother Russia (SAF), 57.5, b m 5, Windrush – Russian Muse (SAF) by Russian Fox
Run For It (SAF), 52.0, b c 3, Dynasty (SAF) – Running Rhythm (SAF) by Jallad
Margins: 1¼, ¾, ¾
Also ran: Tales Of Bravery (SAF) 57.5, Lion In Winter (SAF) 57.5, In Writing (ARG) 58.0, Bravura (SAF) 59.5, Pocket Power (SAF) 60.0, Super Storm (SAF) 57.5, Rushing Wind (SAF) 58.0, Cask (SAF) 57.5, Fort Vogue (SAF) 58.0, Rudra (SAF) 60.0, Last Regal (SAF) 57.5, Flirtation (SAF) 57.0, Celtic Fire (SAF) 57.5
