Betway Ambassador Mike de Kock’s stable won three awards at the 2024 Equus Racing Awards Ceremony held in Cape Town on Thursday evening.
Global View gelding Dave The King was crowned South Africa’s Champion Horse Of The Year. He came to his very best after being gelded last November and posted victories in the Grade 1 HWB Gold Challenge and the HKJC Champions Cup, both run on weight-for-age terms. He was also voted Champion Older Male (any distance).
Stablemate Gimme A Nother ended the season undefeated after seven super victories. She picked up the award for Champion Three-Year-Old Filly.
Mike has a single runner at the weekend. His assistant Michael Nzilana will be saddling Officer In Command in Race 4 over 1500m at HWB Scottsville on Sunday.
On the strength of their last encounter, Officer In Command and Alec Laird’s Command Pilot look set to do battle in this contest. When they met on 7 August over 1400m at Greyville, Officer In Command finished 0.25-lengths in front of his rival in a race won by Shampompo Shampizi, but Laird’s runner is 0.5kg better off at the weights.
Mike commented: “Both are well drawn, our runner has an eachway chance, but on exposed form it looks like Command Pilot has a bit more scope. He has already won twice from nine runs and is perhaps a length or two better than ours. There are two or three more in the race who have chances. I’d include Pieter Both, Teatime Tipple and Down By The River.”
Laird raids from Gauteng with a few other runners including his five-year-old mare, Quantum (Race 3, 1600m) who gave the promising filly Mascharina a good run for her money in the recent Off To Stud Handicap at Scottsville. Quantum is lightly raced, but often hard to beat when she’s at the top of her game, and set to go close.
Racing returns to
HWB Durbanville on Saturday for a 10-race programme. Following a few sunny days in Cape Town, this meeting should go ahead for Cape racing fans who have seen a number of races abandoned due to rain over the last seven weeks.
Trainers based at the Milnerton training centre have not been able to prepare their horses on water-logged tracks during this period and it follows that most of them would be short of peak fitness. Brett Crawford, Justin Snaith and Lunga Gila, who train at Phillipi, have had better luck because they’ve been able to work on the track at Futura Park and, in theory, should have an advantage.
That said, pre-race favourites from all training centres performed well at the Kenilworth meetings on 25 June and 24 July. The best advice for punters is to stick to their own proven methods of studying form and to trust that it will stand up regardless of the interrupted training programmes.
Candice Bass-Robinson, fifth of the National log last season, could have a bright start to the day with From A Distance in Race 1 and King’s Quest in Race 2. Both races are over 1250m and the trainer’s pair have shown enough ability in their first few runs to get off the mark here.
Snaith, who has averaged an amazing 141 winners per season for the last 20 years, could boost this term’s early tally in Race 4 over 1400m, in which well-bred Little Suzie has pole position and is expected to go one better after a good second on her course and distance debut.
Glen Kotzen’s Holding Thumbs should be course and distance suited in Race 5 over 1600m. He was impressive in a start-to-finish win at Kenilworth last time and, with similar tactics, could well follow up.
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