STAR sprinter JJ The Jet Plane delivered another huge international advert for South African horseracing as he bounded through late to clinch the $1-million Al Quoz Sprint over 1000m on turf at the Dubai World Cup meeting at Meydan on Saturday, reports ROBERT GARNER on tabonline.co.za.
This was a genuine all-South African victory in front of tens of millions of television viewers across the globe. A son of multiple South African champion sire Jet Master, JJ The Jet Plane is owned by South Africans, is trained by Vaal-based Lucky Houdalakis and was ridden by Cape Town jockey Bernard Fayd’Herbe.
Andrew Watkins on the spot as JJ The Jet Plane (far side), gets up to win Al Quoz Sprint.
JJ The Jet Plane arrived in Dubai this year with the Golden Shaheen over 1200m on the synthetic track as his target at the World Cup meeting. But that plan went up in smoke when he fell flat on the surface in his first start of the Racing Carnival and Houdalakis had a few sleepless nights before he devised a new game plan for his charge.
The big worry was that 1000m on the hard and quick Meydan turf would be too short for JJ The Jet Plane and those fears looked very real as the runners came out of the dust of a sandstorm with about 300m to go on Saturday.
Some three lengths back in the middle stages, JJ was blocked a couple of times before Fayd’Herbe found a gap and the pair began to close quickly on leaders Better Be The One, War Artist and Invincible Ash.
But the post was looming as JJ closed and in the end it was touch and go. Much to the relief of millions of horseplayers, the photo showed that hot favourite JJ had got the verdict by a head from War Artist.
JJ’s connections jumped into each other’s arms and the contingent of South African racing fans at Meydan, ably led by cheerleader Eblen David, gave the gelding a rousing reception when he returned to the No 1 box.
Houdalakis, who turned to training after an injury cut short his riding career, showered praise on his charge. “It’s so awesome to have a horse like him,” said Houdalakis, adding that he had never wanted to train and had nearly given it up a couple of times in the first few months.
It was also a grand moment for Fayd’Herbe, who gave JJ a peach of a ride. Spurred on by Steven Jell, Mike de Kock’s travelling assistant trainer, Fayd’Herbe took a gamble and came to Dubai a few weeks back with no real prospect of getting a mount at World Cup.
As it turned out, he ended up helping Houdalakis daily with JJ’s preparation. And, assisted by Jell, got his weight down to 55kg, which enabled him to ride River Jetez to a second-place finish in the Duty Free.
South Africa could also lay claim to another winner on the night in Rocket Man, an Australian-bred trained by South African Pat Shaw in Singapore, owned by South African Fred Crabbia and perfectly ridden by long-time top jockey Felix Coetzee.
Rocket Man, unlucky to suffer a narrow defeat at the hooves of Kinsale King in the Golden Shaheen a year ago, got it right this time round and his task was made easier after his conqueror of a year ago was withdrawn not long before the race.
Coetzee let Rocket Man track leader Euroears through the race and overwhelmed trainer Bob Baffert’s USA raider in the closing stages, pulling away late to score by 2.50 lengths.
It was a change of luck for Rocket Man, who went into the race a 13-time winner from 17 starts with all four defeats being international contests. “I’m shaking. I am so relieved that he has managed to break his hoodoo of coming second every time in international races. I was dreading the same thing happening again,” said Crabbia.
Coetzee was all smiles. “He’s a terrific horse. I’m the happiest person at Meydan tonight.”
