The Mike and Adam Azzie yard will have a powerful team in the defense of their Grade 1 Cape Flying Championship crown on WSB Met day and their promising three-year-old filly Gimme A Shot is eyeing the Grade 1 WSB Cape Fillies Guineas.
They are not sure yet whether the Golden Loom winner Sheela will be one of their Cape Flying contenders.
Adam said, “We are going to nominate Sheela for the Southern Cross Stakes (Grade 2 over 1000m at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth on December 3) and look at the field. It is a weight for age (plus penalties) event over 1000m and there are not many smarter sprinting fillies than her around at the moment. We haven’t ruled out the Cape Flying, but we will probably only go for one of the races not both.”
If they do take Sheela down for the Southern Cross, she will be one of at least two fillies on the float because they are going to run Gimme A Shot in the Grade 1 WSB Cape Fillies Guineas on the same day.
The Gimmethegreenlight filly flew up for a half-a-length third in the Grade 3 HSH Princess Charlene Stakes over 1400m on Saturday.
Adam had a strong opinion about that performance and said, “She was like a football team that hits the bar about nine times during the match and then loses in a penalty shoot out! She was the best horse in the race but just did not win.”
Gimme A Shot committed early but was caught wide for a while and even when eventually finding cover was three wide, thus going a further trip than the inside horses. After, JP van der Merwe had balanced her in the straight she showed signs of green-ness by wandering around a bit. However, when she got her mind on the job she flew with long-strides and was eating up the ground late to be beaten just half-a-length into third.
Adam said, “We always thought she would be a Cape Fillies Guineas horse.”
The yard gave her a quiet campaign as a two-year-old. She won a maiden juvenile plate over 1200m on debut in May and then finished a 0,40 length second to Gobsmacked in the Grade 2 Prosport Debutante over 1200m at Hollywoodbets Greyville on Gold Cup day. Gobsmacked won on her seasonal reappearance recently to remain unbeaten in four starts.
Because of Gimme A Shot’s small size they think another run before going to Cape Town will mean the Cape Fillies Guineas might come too soon.
So, they will probably go straight into the Cape Fillies Guineas, although they are aware the draw plays “a massive” part in that race and her participation might depend on it.
For the Cape Flying on WSB Met day the Azzies will have two Grade 1-winning weight for age sprinters, the defending Cape Flying Champion Bohica and the Computaform Sprint winner Master Archie. They will also have the hard-knocking and progressive Bartholdi.
Adam said, “Bohica made a good winning comeback and will likely follow the same route as last year i.e. two pinnacles.”
He added, “Master Archie (formerly trained by Paul Peter) is way above average. He ran a super first race for us (three length third to Bartholdi giving the latter 4kg over 1000m). We still have a lot to learn about him and hope we can get to the bottom of him.”
He continued, “Bartholdi, since he has come down to sprints, has not been too bad at all.”
Adam reckons Bartholdi would have won the Grade 1 Golden Horse Sprint had he been drawn better (was drawn one) and been able to follow Alesian Chief down the middle.
The tough Kenilworth 1000m should suit this five-year-old Act Of War gelding. He has had two starts over 1000m on the Highveld and won both of them, but he has won up to as far as 1500m too, so he has had a similar career to Bohica, whose first two career wins were over 1400m and 1600m respectively.
Meanwhile, Sheela recorded the rare feat on Saturday of beating the boys in a stakes race with topweight.
She carried 60.5kg in the Listed Golden Loom Handicap over 1000m and was giving 8.5kg to both the 0,70 length runner up Constable and to the 2,25 length third-placed Now I Got You.
Constable came out and franked the form today (Thursday).
On a line through Vaseem, Sheela put up a virtually identical performance to the last run of Bartholdi.
Adam reckoned Sheela had inherited class from both her Galileo sire The United States and from her damsire Trippi, but just happens to have also inherited speed from her dam Trip To India, who finished third in the Listed Swallow Stakes over 1160m.
