The Poly Triple Crown dream may be lying in tatters in the shadows of the Fairview winning post but Gogetthesheriff’s trainer Jacques Strydom says his team will live to fight another day. And we are assured that there will be an after party to celebrate a memorable day – rather than any morbid post-mortems.
Gogetthesheriff arrives too late and settles for third (photo: Coastal Photography)
After winning the first two legs of the East Cape Poly Challenge in scintillating fashion, it took a brave man to back against a horse that has so captured the public imagination with his deadly turn of foot and awesome acceleration.
The mile of the third leg was more his game than the 1200m or 1400m could ever be. And the field looked beatable.
And so it was that the glare of the media spotlight and the money poured in on the Sheriff as the bookmakers took the pressure and changed the numbers from black to red on their betting boards – with the Friday faithful, and even some less regular racecourse visitors, flocking into Fairview as the shadows lengthened on the expectant happy afternoon.
Jacques Strydom – down but not out
The hype was there. Clyde Basel and Vee Moodley were licking their lips and watching the tills – as were their sponsors who were getting the bang for their buck too often lacking in racing these days.
Abashiri had done it – why not another Go Deputy in the space of a dream few weeks for Lammerskraal?
“No excuses,” says Jacques Strydom with a friendly firmness as we ask him to tear the race apart.
Is he disappointed, we ask.
“For bloody sure. It was our race to lose. The pressure was tremendous. I have never had so many messages of support and good luck. Even after the event, people have been in touch. I am probably more disappointed for the fans and the punters than Freddy and the team. We are in racing – we know how to handle disappointment. And we will be back.”
Seen Jacques is talking, we push him about the sedentary pace.
We put it to him that only Sandile Khathi will know what he was thinking when going to the front on Zoo Biscuit and then 
easing it up. It’s surely not normally what stayers do and it played an ace right into the hands of the capable Snaith miler stalking him.
“Ag ja, we would have preferred it a bit hotter up front. And the pace naturally crossed my mind in the build-up. I didn’t have a horse I could have included in any event. JP had Sheriff a bit closer than usual and when he changed whip hands, he quickened nicely and made up close on eight lengths in the final 300m. It is no disgrace to have been beaten a half-length by a major centre stakes performer who has run places and close up two year’s running in SA’s premier weight-for-age mile,” he added.
How is the Sheriff and where to from here?
“He couldn’t blow out a candle afterwards and he pulled up sound. Our plan was always the Algoa Cup before the Poly series came along. I need to sit down with Freddy Van Onselen and discuss it. We used to love to travel to Durban and elsewhere and chase the long road in the past. But Freddy enjoys his racing at home and with a good 5yo with plenty of racing in front of him, why should we push the envelope? There is plenty of good racing right here in PE,” he said.
