Thoroughbred Group’s eNews: More than a few interesting challenges in-store as we drive to the wire in the closing stages of the current season statistics.
Master yet? Captain Al launching an assault on champion sire title.
Our stallion interests relate so closely to the epic battle between champion jockeys Anton Marcus and Anthony Delpech in their bid to see who the champion will be in 2011. That word CHAMPION means everything. The same applies to stallions and all other stats in our industry.The head bobbing dual between Captain Al and Jet Master is nail biting stuff. Captain Al went R86 000 clear when he won the first three races in the Cape last week, then Jet Master took revenge with a three win reply. As at Sunday Jet Master was R72 738 ahead (according to Sporting Post – we are still waiting for the NHRA to verify their results) and he has two runners more than Captain Al carded this week. In fact Captain Al has one of the frustratingly lowest number of runners carded in a mid-week period for some time, just when we need them the most.
Fortunately we have a strong hand on champion’s day at Greyville and that is exactly what it is going to boil down to:- the penultimate day of the season! As if that is not enough we also have weather issues to overcome as storms head up the east coast. We have just heard of a huge gas tanker ship running aground south of Durban. Such is the ferocity of that storm. We pray that it does not influence racing because there are exciting runners that we are looking forward to seeing:
Stern Line (Captain Al) and Ocean’s Swift (Captain Al) in the Gr1 Thekwini Stakes; Captain’s Wild (Captain Al), Power Lord (Dynasty) and Jeppe’s Reef (Jallad) in the Gr1 Canon Gold Cup; Captain’s Secret (Captain Al) and Sage Throne (Dynasty) in the Gr1 Champions Cup; as well as Emerald Cove (Captain Al), Beach Beauty (Dynasty) and Quick Single (Jallad) in the Gr2 Gold Bracelet.
No disrespect to the mighty Jet Master and his connections, BUT we hope like mad that we win. Captain Al really has done it the hard way, having earned two Champion Sire of 2yo titles and an Equus Outstanding Sire of the Year Award, so in our opinion, he deserves the respect of being able to put up the title of all titles, Champion Sire, on his door.
