SATURDAY’s Bloodstock SA Cape Guineas would appear on paper to be a three horse race from the form and historical point of view and it has been 16 years since a horse with double figure odds has won the race when Bushmanland did it in January 1995.

There are four horses who currently have single figure odds in Saturday’s race, What A Winter, Perana, Kavanagh and Solo Traveller, although the last of them appears held by easy winner What A Winter on Selangor form. 

However, the Selangor was run on the old course with its shorter straight and also at a slow pace, so the form on paper might not be as cut and dried as it seems.

What A Winter, who bids to give Mike Bass his first Cape Guineas, has all the credentials, with the possible exception of stamina, and is a worthy 16-10 favourite.

Bass said What A Winter was unlikely to ever win a race by far as he could be waited with until the right moment before sweeping them away.

Mike de Kock’s pair, Perana and Kavanagh, arrived on Wednesday from Gauteng and the master trainer said they “seemed to have travelled well.”

Mike said he had appointed the rides and Kevin Shea had not had a choice.

Perana would ideally prefer further, but he would be okay if there was a testing pace and he “could run at them”.

Mike added that it had not been his plan for Perana to set the pace in the Summer Cup, in which he faded over the tough Turffontein 2000m after appearing to have gone too hard.

Asked if his turn of foot was good enough, he replied that he certainly had the ability to stay on well, as he proved in the Victory Moon.

Anthony Delpech said after that race that he had “never sat on a better three-year-old”, although qualified it by saying that the horse had been so green that “he still doesn’t know what to with his ability.”

Mike feels that Kavanagh (headline photo), who will be ridden by Johnny Geroudis, “definitely needed his run” in the Dingaans over the tough Turffontein 1600m when hitting a brick wall in the final 100m, having cruised into the lead.

He has “never had a doubt” that he would stay 1600m, so from draw two this horse will be a massive runner. – (Gold Circle Media)