Gold Digger! Empress Club wins in 1993 under Anton Marcus.
The track record of the fairer sex in the Met over the past half century is not particularly impressive on paper. Only five ladies have managed to win the prestigious race in all that time but this year could be another big one for the gender that we love so much and just know that God made different – very different!
Renounce(1966), Olympic Duel(1991), Empress Club(1993), Imperious Sue(1998)and more recently River Jetez in 2010 are the female victors in this race over the past fifty years.
Four of their five winning jockeys have rides in Saturday’s Met. Anthony Delpech, who partnered Imperious Sue for David Payne in 1998, rides the ruling favourite filly Igugu, while Felix Coetzee who won on the brilliant mare Olympic Duel, rides another female in Emerald Cove. Anton Marcus, who partnered Empress Club some 18 years ago, rides Joey Ramsden’s topweight, Bravura. Glen Hatt rode Pocket Power’s sister River Jetez as well as the course record holder Bunter Barlow to win in 2001 – interestingly both for Mike Bass – but jumps aboard another Ramsden runner in Lion In Winter on Saturday.
Fillies are particularly well represented in J&B’S class of 2012. Beside’s Mike De Kock’s Vodacom Durban July winner and reigning Horse of The Year Igugu , both Justin Snaith’s Emerald Cove and Dennis Drier’s Beach Beauty will not embarrass their connections as the shadows lengthen on Kenilworth at around 16h33 on Saturday.
If we reduce that half century down to the past seven runnings of the Met, then the female track record takes on a sudden rosy hue and displays a marked and definite shift in power. While we know that statistics are devious and misleading at times, this is surely a strong pointer that one of the three ladies will finish in the first two places?
Call it the seven year itch, but the gender continental shift is there – a win, four second places and a third for the girls in that short time.
Cross that Zebra! Iha Da Vitoria(grey) powers through late for second in 2007.
MJ Odendaal piloted Lammerskraal owned Icy Air to finish second to shock winner Alastor in 2006. The following year the brilliant grey Wilgerbosdrift flyer Ilha Da Vitoria was beaten narrowly by Zebra Crossing. In 2009 the champion Pocket Power won the race for a record-breaking third time in a row beating two smart girls in Dancer’s Daughter and River Jetez. The latter was to go on and make the 2010 running a whitewash for the girls when beating Mother Russia, who repeated her second cheque in 2011 when runner-up to the Darryl Hodgson trained Past Master.
So who will lead the charge this year? There is no question that Igugu will be right in the vanguard on raw ability when the whips are cracking – if she is even 80% fit and happy. But her preparation has been fraught with hindrances, real or imagined.
Her 2012 campaign started on a shaky note when she was withdrawn from the Gr1 Paddock Stakes for what was officially labelled as a minor respiratory issue. As so often happens in horseracing, that problem evolved and grew wings into a story of her being lame with speculation rife that trainer Mike De Kock’s farrier had trimmed her hooves to the point where she went lame and couldn’t even step onto the Cape Town bound float. That would not make sense for a clown – never mind a world champion racehorse trainer, so we will take it with a pinch of salt. Racehorses are flesh and blood and things go wrong. But De Kock would not be running her and risking probably the second most valuable filly in South Africa, if she isn’t 100%.
Front to Back?Anthony Delpech and Mike De Kock are two wily campaigners.
Then her official Met gallop in Gauteng was clouded in controversy when De Kock is alleged to have been miffed by the manner in which she lead her work-mate Kavanagh, rather than sit in behind him as he had instructed. Jockey Anthony Delpech dismissed this as a ‘misunderstanding’ later that day.
Now we learn that the Galileo filly is being subjected to strict quarantine procedures in Cape Town, and her trainer has asked some very relevant questions regarding certain other Gauteng Met Day runners not being subjected to the same demands. As we know De Kock, all of this nonsense will just make the champagne that little sweeter come Saturday. We cannot wait to hear his acceptance speech!
Flying Solo. Emerald Cove seen during her Met gallop last week.
Justin Snaith’s Emerald Cove is the longest shot of the three fillies and her Paddock Stakes effort can be ignored as she had no chance off that dawdle. Her previous run on 17 December, when storming through late over a mile, to go down only a half length to Tales Of Bravery, when receiving only a half-kilo from the Marshall horse, was a run full of merit. She may be held by Beach Beauty on their Gr2 Gold Bracelet face-off on Can Gold Cup day. But that was six months ago and things change.She put up a terrific solo Met gallop last week and will have the invaluable assistance of Felix Coetzee in the saddle.
Visiting trainer Dennis Drier has had an unbelievable Cape season with thirteen winners from a small string stationed at Phillipi. Just as Igugu has had an interrupted prep, so has Beach Beauty’s looked decidedly smooth. Fair enough, the pace catastrophe in the Gr1 Paddock Stakes three weeks ago, which saw her run an unlucky second, was not a happy time for her connections. But the finger of fate may just have dealt her a better hand here as she goes into the Met without the albatross of the 2kg penalty she would have incurred for that Gr1 win that never was.
Smart Alec! Mr Forbes is at the top of his game.
She is exceptionally lightly raced with only four starts under her belt after going down narrowly in the Garden Province Stakes at Greyville on July Day. She is also handily weighted and jumps from a favourable 5 draw. Jockey Alec Forbes and trainer Drier would also have welcomed the confidence boosting Gr1 Cape Flying Championship win of last Saturday with the brilliant Val De Ra. And with the Paddock Stakes now long forgotten, Beach Beauty looks set to give young stallion Dynasty his first Met winner – and put the cap on a memorable season for the Durbanites.
Girls just wanna have fun. But boy, we know they can also run. Roll on Saturday!
