No. 1840 ISSN 1023 / 6996
4
MONDAY 4th - THURSDAY 7th JUNE 2012
FLAMINGO PARK
Seventh Heaven. Mr Tobin looks to make it seven on the sand.
12:20pm (Monday) p.5
SCOTTSVILLE
12:35pm (Tuesday) p.14
DURBANVILLE
12:50pm (Wednesday) p.25
VAAL SAND
11:25am (Thursday) p.32
PINNACLE STAKES over 1600m at Vaal sand on Thursday Sean Tarry’s sand legend Mr Tobin is awarded something of a benefit race at the Vaal on Thursday, possibly in lieu of being snubbed at the recent Highveld Feature Season Racing Awards. The gelding runs in a Pinnacle Stakes over a mile, and it is difficult to find anything amongst his seven opponents to lower his colours.
T
hat’s a tongue-incheek dig on behalf of one of our favourite horses and we can understand why The Mouseketeer pipped him.
Solid Citizen Mr Tobin is the personification of the character traits that would make punting racehorses a lot more pleasurable than it is at times. He is Mr Reliability and Mr Consistency, and while his stablemate The Mouseketeer lifted the Sand Specialist trophy at the Highveld Feature Season Racing Awards, Mr Tobin warrants some acknowledgement too in our book. Fair enough, The Mouseketeer won the Gr3 August Stakes and the Gr2 Emerald Cup within the space of a month at the beginning of this season, but there is not a horse around to match Mr Tobin’s perfect career six from six on the sand. And how can we forget how he walloped The Mouseketeer by an embrassing 4,25 lengths when they met over this course and distance in February?
Strike One Mr Tobin stands out here. He is fit and on fire at the moment. He showed great character and fight at his last outing when giving the De Kock runner Meadow Magic 2,5kgs and a convincing, albeit narrow,
walloping. Regular rider Gavin Lerena is indisposed,and a very able replacement in Piere Strydom has been booked.What more can we say about a horse that has no peers over this course and distance? Ryan’s A Lion and the welldrawn Caribbean Coast look the two most likely to be in the Strydom sniper sights and attack strategy. But that’s only because they may just get in his way early on. The Verdonese-trained Caribbean Coast has only run 2 of his 67 starts on the sand, which statistic in itself is an indication that his connections have long accepted that his real earning potential lies on the turf. The better of Caribbean Coast’s two runs on sand was in February 2009 when he finished 4,50 lengths behind Fox Hunt over the mile. If memory serves us correctly, Fox Hunt landed up campaigning in Zimbabwe a short while after that win. Sayadaw finished 3 lengths ahead in that race, and was giving the Verdonese runner 3kgs. But that form is surely academic here, and it is the heart and tryer in Caribbean Coast that inspires some confidence. He is always just there or thereabouts and has never been more than 5,25 lengths off the winner in all of his last eleven outings.
years old and has his problems. Despite the natural aches and pains expected of a horse his age, over and above the respiratory noises and coughing, he always puts his heart into his racing and ran on well from midfield when a 2,75 length fourth to National Road in an MR86 Handicap on the turf last time. He also ran an eyecatching third at his penultimate start when running on for a 1,25 lengths third to the capable Jet Dot Com. That was probably more an indication of Ryan’s A Lion’s well-being than anything else, as Jet Dot Com flopped at his next start. The seven year old Sayadaw ran wide at his last outing after jumping at a 12 from 13 stallgate over the Vaal sand 1450m. He ran on steadily there to finish fifth some 12 lengths beLion Hearted hind Right Beauty. He gave Bouguet Garni three The eight-time winning Ryan’s A Lion is rising eight kgs and a four lengths beating
Great Britain
Derby Days The son of Strike Smartly, once upon a time with the Mike De Kock yard, campaigns these days for Gavin Zyl and has won a solitary race in three years since that Derby win. That was in a Pinnacle Stakes over the 1450m of this course in August 2011, when downing Incomodo by five lengths, with a fair field trailing in his wake. He finished 16 lengths behind Right Beauty in his comeback run after a rest, but looks stretched to even run a place here. Paul Matchett’s five year old
Brazillian-bred mare Xilomante is the only lady in the race and carries a paperweight of 48,5kgs, courtesy of the 4kg claim of up-and-coming apprentice Bryan Claassen . She is another who does not appear to be relishing her racing and last won in September. She was reported coughing when running a poor sprint two weeks ago.
Slow Tyrone Zackey’s King’s Destiny is a seven-time winning six year old who has lost his form badly. His efforts to earn are not aided by the recent recurrence of an old bad habit of dawdling out of the starting gates. He should not threaten here. KwaZulu-Natal trainer Kumaran Naidoo sends out the erratically behaved Mr Premier, who improved dramatically at his first start on
sand when running a fair third in an MR80 Handicap last time when 5,75 lengths behind Pylon. He stumbled during that race and has a history of quirky antics during his races. He cannot be fancied to trouble Mr Tobin on these weight terms. Famous guitarist Jimi Hendrix once said that even castles made of sand, fall into the sea, eventually. We don’t see the tide rising high enough with these opponents, and Mr Tobin crumbling to nothing or being beaten here. He is a confident first choice to maintain his great record. Banker him all round.
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that afternoon, and looks to have the measure of the Van Zyl horse again. In fact it is difficult to imagine that the Oppenheimerowned former SA Derby winner Boquet Garni won four of his first six starts and even took his place in the line-up for the 2009 Vodacom Durban July, won by the three year old Big City Life.
(R4.000 nom, R8.000 LF)
HIGHLANDS Tel: Mike Sharkey 082 372 2682 email: highstud@iafrica.com www.highlandsfarmstud.co.za