MIKE de Kock clearly has another potential star in his stable as Al Muthana made an impressive winning debut at Turffontein on Thursday, writes JACK MILNER.
The Australian son of Deep Field (Northern Meteor) went off at 22-10 and coasted to a comfortable four-length victory under Callan Murray in Race 2 and it will come of something of a surprise if punters will be able to claim that price for quite some time.
There are a lot of things one can debate about the performances of horses but the one thing no one can argue about is the time of a race. Al Muthana completed the 1160m in a class record 66.85sec, the fastest time recorded by any runner on the day.
Al Muthana’s sire was a record-breaking sprinter himself, he won his first 5 races straight by a combined margin of 24 lengths and stands at Newgate Farm in Aberdeen, New South Wales.
There were four races over the distance and the next best time was 67.89sec, recorded by Golden Duke in Race 9.
It was an amazing effort for a two-year-old having his first run.
“Look, he’s a very nice horse,” said De Kock. “This is horse that when he goes round the turn – a mile, whatever – I think he’s got group potential.”
Al Muthana was not all that well away but he quickly moved into contention and once Murray asked him for an effort, he charged past his opposition to beat Nourbese. Catch Twentytwo was third with Harrys Secret, who eventually went off as the 15-10 favourite, beaten six lengths into fourth spot.
Speaking about the performance, Murray said: “He went down pretty green and was slightly slow – not too bad – but I liked the way he got into stride. He quickly got into a good rhythm and accelerated off that well.”
Al Muthana is a home-bred, owned by Sheikh Hamdan bi Rashid Al Maktoum.
