MAJMU will not be taking part in the 2015 Gr1 J&B Met on 31 January at Kenilworth.

Mike de Kock announced on Monday evening that he will be withdrawing the stable’s champion three-year-old filly from the Cape’s showpiece event (for which she was one of the ante-post favourites) and that the race operator will be officially notified on Tuesday morning.

Majmu will stay in Gauteng and Mathew de Kock will be keeping a good eye on her.

Mike’s decision to scratch Majmu comes despite the lifting of the recent movement restriction ban on horses stabled at Randjesfontein. He commented: “Under current AHS conditions it has been recommended that we move horses we intend to race in Cape Town to another centre or to Cape Town as soon as possible in case the movement ban is re-instituted, but I don’t want to prepare Majmu elsewhere.

“There are other overriding factors too. Majmu lost weight when she travelled to the Cape and back for the Fillies Guineas last December and had not put it back on after having had a month to do so. Taking  another trip to Cape Town for a major race like the Met will be a bit hard on a young filly like her and could affect her Triple Tiara aspirations.

“We’d rather bide our time, the Highveld feature season is around the corner in Gauteng and it makes sense to keep Majmu stabled here in view of the Triple Tiara series. We had to make a decision whether Majmu would travel to Cape Town on Wednesday along with Pine Princess and Alboran Sea and after discussions with Sheikh Hamdan’s Racing Manager Angus Gold this evening we considered it to be in Majmu’s best interest to take her out of the J&B Met.”

Pine Princess has been accepted to race in the Gr1 Paddock Stakes at Kenilworth this coming Saturday.  Alboran Sea will be running in the Cape Flying Championship on 24 January.

Pine Princess, Cape-bound.

Final field for the Maine Chance Farms R1-million Paddock Stakes (Grade 1) (F&M) over 1800m 1 – 8 HAMMIE’S HOOKER (M W Bass) B Fayd’Herbe 60.0 – 111 2 – 1 JET AGLOW (D R Drier) S Cormack 60.0 – 105 3 – 7 JET BELLE (G S Kotzen) G Cheyne 60.0 – 103 4 – 2 JET SUPREME (S J Snaith) K Neisius 60.0 – 101 5 – 4 MAYBE YES (B Crawford) C Orffer 59.5 – 105 6 – 9 ATHINA (J A Soma) P Strydom 59.5 – 101 7 – 6 ACROSTAR (S J Snaith) R Fourie 59.5 – 100 8 – 12 ASH CLOUD (S J Snaith) S Khumalo 59.5 – 97 9 – 3 SHINGWEDZI (M W Bass) A Domeyer 59.5 – 96 10 – 11 PECAN NUT (S Elley) G Lerena 59.5 – 88 11 – 5 PINE PRINCESS (M F De Kock) W Marwing 54.0 – 103 12 – 13 INARA (M W Bass) G van Niekerk 54.0 – 101 13 – 10 GREY LIGHT (J Ramsden) M Byleveld 54.0 – 96 Same Trainer: (1,9,12) (4,7,8)