THERE aren’t many left who appreciate the fact, but racing is steeped in history that tends to repeat itself, evident on Sunday in a smart debut win by Mary Slack’s two-year-old filly Bang Sue, who turned a Maiden Juvenile Plate over 1200m at Turffontein into a procession.
Bang Sue is by Fort Wood from Slack’s former champion mare Rat Burana (by Dodge), who won the Gr1 Allan Robertson Fillies Championship almost exactly seven years ago to the day, and in addition just a day after Slack and Michael Javett’s Alboran Sea (Rock Of Gibraltar) also captured the prestigious race for two-year-old fillies.
Bang Sue made a promising winning debut at Turffontein.
On the mentioned day seven years ago Seventh Rock (Rock Of Gibraltar) won the Gr1 Gold Medallion – yesterday his two-year-old son Guiness reigned victorious in the same race, for the same ownership and ridden by the same jockey.
It’s far too early to predict the glorious achievements of her dam for Bang Sue, but Mike de Kock commented from Mauritius yesterday: “That she’s a daughter of Fort Wood brings scope to her pedigree and I think she’ll stay at least a mile or more, we’ll be monitoring her development with interest.”
As noted on this site, three-year-old Whistle Stop was sorely in need of his comeback run in a Pinnacle Stakes over a mile – he ran pleasingly, finishing five lengths off Master Sabina but leaving the stable with an important decision on his immediate future, to be made this week.
Mike explained: “With a bit of luck Whistle Stop can still make it into the July, if not be a factor in other features this season, but he is also more than good enough to go to Dubai for the 2015 Carnival and this presents a problem. The export conditions have changed and all our runners destined for Dubai have to be in quarantine by 8 June, which rules out the July and other Graded races for Whistle Stop and indeed a few others. We’ll have to make a call on this in the next few days.”
