Two fillies back to best
January 26, 2022
Last-gasp win for super Sparkling Water!
January 30, 2022
Betway Ambassador Mike de Kock won’t have any runners competing in this year’s renewal of the Cape Town Met on Saturday, but he has taken one runner, Sparkling Water, down from Johannesburg to Kenilworth to contest the G2 New Turf Carriers Western Cape Stayers over 2800m. He fancies her to go close to winning.
Mike said: “Sparkling Water has travelled well, she’s arrived in Cape Town and she looks good. She is well weighted for the race and hopefully she’ll get over the strangeness of her new surroundings. She’s a big runner!”
The stable has entered five runners for the meeting on the standside track at Turffontein on Sunday afternoon and Mike noted:
“In Race 2 we have Iphiko, I thought he’d run a bit better last time but he was mildly disappointing. I think she is better than her form. We’ll be fitting her with blinkers and she comes back to a sprint, certainly one to include in your swingers, exactas and so on.
“In Race 4 we run Maria’s World. She is fairly consistent although she hasn’t won yet. She’s in a pretty good space, I give her an eachway chance.”
“Keepingthepeace has been racing in good form in recent weeks, but she and the useful Masaaken have tough tasks at the weights in Race 6. The conditions allow them to run into the places without incurring penalties so we’re taking our chances and they’re not out of it, because barring one or two this isn’t a strong race. It’s the type of race that can throw up anomalies, the pace will be a factor and a wide spread is needed for the exotic perms and you can’t exclude my pair.”
“Race 7 is the Wolf Power handicap, named after one of South Africa’s great champions, and we have Al Muhtana carrying the flag for us. He’s doing really well of late, enjoying his racing. I am disappointed that S’Manga Khumalo couldn’t take the ride, but he is being loyal to the Alec Laird stable with Prince Evlanoff. We have an able replacement in Muzi Yeni. Al Muhtana is in form, there is a turnaround in weights with a few rivals but he has a winning chance.”
