Linkman - Gr1 winner for Toreador
Dennis Drier-trained Link Man provided the home team with its second successive Gr 1 winner of the day when he narrowly captured the Gold Reef Medallion for two-year-olds over 1200m at Scottsville on Saturday, in the process beating some very expensive blue-bloods from elsewhere and denting a couple of hefty reputations to boot, writes Matthew Lips.
Link Man had been a wide margin winner against much weaker opposition of his last two starts over the same course-and-distance, most recently when 1/16 favourite against three maidens in a juvenile plate seventeen days earlier, but the Gold Medallion represented a much sterner test. He was allowed to start as a 9/1 chance in a market dominated by Kavanagh, who went off as a heavily supported 13/20 favourite after his impressive debut success on soft ground in the Gr 2 Nursery at Turffontein four weeks earlier. Impressive Turffontein inner track debut winner Sports Coach was joint 15/2 second favourite with Copper Parade, who had finished second at Gr 2 level over the Gold Medallion course-and-distance in April.
Tuscan Sky had won both of his two previous starts over 1000m and he was the early leader here, showing plenty of pace over on the inside as Copper Parade, Sports Coach, Starfire and Kavanagh showed up prominently as well. Link Man was just off the pace early on. Kavanagh was clearly battling to quicken when called up for his effort and his backers must have known they were in deep trouble as the field came to the final 300m, where Al Tuscan was still going great guns as Sports Coach challenged strongly wider out. Link Man began to really get into it over final furlong, though, and with Al Tuscan beginning to weaken it was left to Drier’s colt and Sports Coach to dominate the finish.
In the end it was Link Man who found just a little more than Sports Coach and he went on to register a hard fought neck victory from Charles Laird’s colt, but the runner-up was starting for only the second time in his career and it is never easy for a horse with so little experience to be truly competitive in Gr 1 events. Link Man’s greater experience – not the mention his considerably experience of racing on the undulating Scottsville track – may have made the difference in the end and Sports Coach is very much a youngster to follow. There is nevertheless not much to suggest that the best horse didn’t win, and Link Man fully deserved his success.
Tuscan Sky eventually finished 1.75 lengths behind the winner in third and looks at present to be very much his mother’s son. He is out of the Gr 3 winning mare Tuscan Elegance, whose six career wins all came over 1000m. Kavanagh eventually stayed on under pressure to finish fourth, 2.5 lengths behind the winner, but he never looked like repeating his Nursery success, which had come on soggy going. He was beaten for speed on the much faster ground at Scottsville and the son of Tiger Ridge will probably be more effective over a longer distance. He certainly deserves a chance to redeem himself if and when he tries his hand in the longer Gr 1 juvenile Features which lie ahead. So does his stable companion Sky Marshal, who finished fifth here but who is bound to be a better horse over 1400m plus.
Link Man’s trainer admitted afterwards that he thought this to have been “one of the strongest Medallion fields” and that in the circumstances it was difficult to feel overly bullish about his chances, but Link Man has clearly shown tons of ability at home from the outset and connections were confident that he had a realistic winning chance. Link Man is from the second crop of Danehill’s son Toreador and became the stallion’s first Gr 1 winner. He is the second foal and first winner of Among Men mare Western Smoke, who could only manage two very moderate fourth place finishes in a career which spanned only four starts. Bred by the Tawny Syndicate and owned by members of that syndicate, Link Man has won three of his four starts for R409 875 in stakes. On pedigree he may well stay a bit further than 1200m, and he hardly seemed to be stopping at the finish of the Gold Medallion.
