Picture: A plan comes together as Bereave wins the Grade 2 Khaya Stables Diadem Stakes full of running undeer Gavin Lerena at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth on Saturday (Wayne Marks).
Adam Marcus said the breeder and original owner of Bereave, Danny Collins, had to take a lot of the credit for where the horse had got to in his career.
He also praised the current owners for believing in his own plan, which involved thinking with the head instead of the heart by avoiding a Grade 1 race and targeting a Grade 2.
He was also grateful for the roles his famous father Basil and jockey Gavin Lerena played in Bereave’s Grade 2 Khaya Stables Diadem Stakes victory on Saturday at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth.
He said the five-year-old Vercingetorix gelding had had issues and X-rays as a youngster had shown the quality of his bone not to be great.
Patience was therefore needed and that is what he got from Collins, who owned him for his first five starts, which were over a seven month period and yielded two wins, a second and third over distances of 1200m to 1600m.
The current syndicate of Dr B C Arrison, Messrs M A Govender, L H Paletz, G D Tooch & D Yutar, Nick & Val McFall, Mr C Dorrington & Ms A M de Manielle took over in about July 2021.
Adam was surprised to see the generous odds of Bereave, considering his form, in which, for example, he finished a 1,95 length fourth in the Diadem last year and in his last two two starts in the Grade 2 Cape Merchants over the same course and distance he had finished a 0,40 length second last season and and a 2,05 length third this season.
The latter race was behind Diadem favourite Gimme A Prince and he was going to be 1kg better off on Saturday.
That was not to mention Bereave’s consistency, or as Adam puts it, a horse “who doesn’t know how to run a bad race.”
Adam believed the hype surrounding the two big guns Gimme A Prince and Rio Querari, who were coming in off a one-two finish in the Grade 1 Pongracz Cape Flying Championship, must have caused the public to overlook Bereave, who started at double figure odds of 25/2.
Bereave, in his best races, has been noticeable for his flying finishes.
Adam said he was a horse who had to be ridden in a specific way because he tended to “try a little too hard” if out in the open.
He said he had learnt from his father Basil the importance of studying races beforehand in detail.
He revealed Basil used to study every single race in Hong Kong for about one-and-a-half hours, and that included form as well as replays.
This enabled him to arrive in the parade ring supremely confident, because he had a good idea of what all of the opposition would do and what he had to do.
No wonder he was a seven-times Hong Kong Champion jockey!
Adam himself now studies the races in detail and so does Basil and they then compare notes.
After studying the Diadem they had both come to the conclusion that there would be a lack of pace.
So it was not going to be easy to find the cover Bereave needed unless a provision was made for it.
Therefore, Adam instructed Gavin to come out of the stalls “with soft hands”.
Lerena duly did so from draw two and had his mount relaxed in the pack towards the inside.
Adam and Basil were correct in reading a lack of pace.
They were not surprised to see the like of Keagan de Melo and Aldo Domyer taking advantage of it by respectively having Gimme A Prince and last year’s runner up Trip Of Fortune up there in the leading line.
The gaps opened for Bereave and he was able to come with a sweeping run on the outside of the latter pair.
The way he had been relaxed by Lerena for the first half of the race meant he had plenty in the tank and he won full of running by a length from Gimme A Prince with Trip Of Fortune a 1,40 length third.
Rio Querari was on the inside of Bereave in the running and ran on for a 1,70 length fourth.
Bereave did receive 2kg from Gimme A Prince and 1kg from Trip Of Fortune.
Countdown was interestingly in fifth place beaten 3,95 lengths, which fitted in with the form of his last race in a handicap over the same course and distance when receiving 7kg from Bereave and beating him by 0,40 lengths.
Adam said it always made a big difference to have a “top jockey” aboard.
He said Gavin had ridden the horse as if he had known him for years.
Adam said Bereave had travelled well in last year’s Cape Flying but the 1000m proved just to sharp for him, especially in the faster summer going.
Therefore, he had to think with his head and not his heart by avoiding the only Grade 1 sprint in Cape Town and targeting the Diadem.
He was glad the owners had been rewarded by believing in this plan.
Bereave is now going to stay in Cape Town, because Adam believes the soft going of a Cape Town winter will suit him and there will be plenty of suitable Pinnacles and minor features for him on Cape Racing’s revamped program.
He pointed out that early in his career Bereave had finished just 2,50 lengths behind Jet Dark at level weights over 1500m and had followed that with a close up finish over 1600m.
Therefore a 1400m race might also be on the agenda.
How well he does there will tell whether he can step up to a mile.
