With just days to go until Hollywoodbets Kenilworth hosts the 163rd renewal of the famed WSB Gr1 Cape Town Met, Brett Crawford and son James are putting the finishing touches to current favourite Oriental Charm.
Oriental Charm (JP van der Merwe) wins the Green Point Stakes in early December ‘24 (Pic – Chase Liebenberg)
Last season’s Hollywoodbets Gr1 Durban July winner will bid to give the Crawford stable a fourth win in the Hollywoodbets Kenilworth showpiece race.
Eight years ago it was a fine one-three result, with victory going to the Kieswetter-owned Whisky Baron. The Australian-bred denied Horse of the Year and favourite Legal Eagle victory by a length and a half, while stable companion Captain America finished just a neck back in third.
Brett’s first Met winner, Angus, carried the Plattner silks to victory in 2003 and twelve years later, Brett finally found himself lifting the winner’s trophy for the second time after Futura had scored with the minimum of fuss.
Angus (Piere Strydom) wins the 2003 Met – Brett Crawford’s first (Pic – Supplied)
Oriental Charm will also aim to become the latest July/Met winner, no mean feat, given that in modern times, just six horses have completed the sought after double.
That elite club started in 1973 when the Syd Laird-trained Yataghan won the 1973 Rothman’s July at a packed Hollywoodbets Greyville and six months later, prevailed in the 1974 Met.
He was followed five years later by stable companion Politician, the first horse to win both races in the same year. He gave Laird a record seventh July success in 17 years when he captured the 1978 July, having won the Met six months earlier.
The champion returned in 1979 and notched up a second Met win in scarcely believable fashion, making up at least two lengths in the final furlong to hurtle past the filly Festive Forever for a neck victory. The stuff of dreams.
Eighteen years later, Laird’s son Alec added to the family fortunes as the trainer of that wonderful galloper London News. He had justified his 14-10 odds in the 1996 Centenary July, and duly won the 1997 Met under Douglas Whyte.
How Politician won the Met in 1979 (Pic – Supplied)
The first decade of the new millennium was dominated by the mighty Pocket Power. A legend in his lifetime, he won the Met not once, but three times, the second of which in 2008. Six months later, he deadheated with English import Dancer’s Daughter in a thrilling finish to the Vodacom Durban July.
The only filly to win both races is Galileo’s exceptional daughter Igugu. One of the best fillies this country had seen for some time, she captured the 2011 July as a three-year-old and lined up for the 2012 Met as the reigning Horse of the Year.
Despite an interrupted preparation and a tardy start, she showed her undisputed class, digging down deep to lunge past Bravura in the shadow of the post.
A decade later in 2021, Kommetdieding became the most recent Durban July winner to complete the double. A first July runner for owner Ashwin Reynolds and the training team of Harold Crawford and daughter Michelle Rix, the colt had run out a game winner of the hallowed 2200m race and twelve months later, justified favouritism with a smooth victory over L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate winner Jet Dark, who incidentally, turned the tables the following year.
Double! SA Horse Of The Year Igugu (Anthony Delpech) charges home to beat Bravura (Anton Marcus) and win the 2012 Met (Pic – Supplied)
We will have to wait until Saturday to see if Oriental Charm has what it takes and should he succeed, he will also become an overdue first Met winner for his sire Vercingetorix, given that the Maine Chance stallion has come close these past two years.
In 2023, Pomp And Power finished third behind Jet Dark and Kommetdieding and last year, Rascallion looked set for victory until he was caught close home by Double Superlative.
The Vaughan Marshall-trained warrior returns for another crack at the big race and is in the form of his life, coming off a second win in the Gr2 Anthonij Rupert Wyne Premier Trophy.
Runner-up Magic Verse, who was beaten by no more than a shorthead, gives Vercingetorix a third string to his bow.
Victory by any one of the trio means Vercingetorix will finally emulate his own sire Silvano, whose son Martial Eagle defied huge odds to win the 2013 Met. Besides which, it will also strengthen his lead at the top of the General Sires List. Such is his advantage right now, that he looks long odds-on to clinch a well-deserved first General Sires title.
Oriental Charm is one of eight individual stakes winners for Vercingetorix this season, but that tally could well change.
Long-striding daughter Spumante Dolce created quite an impression when she cruised to an easy post-maiden victory at Turffontein, having won her debut by a facile two lengths.
Trained by Mike de Kock, the three-year-old has some way to go to match the achievements of her three-part sister champion Sparkling Water, as well as her dam, the Gr2 winner Espumanti, but she appears to have ‘stakes winner’ written all over her.
