Dyce powers home in the Gr 1 World Pool Cape Flying Championship (Picture: Wayne Marks)
Horsercacing fans are notoriously fickle and a horse who has quickly been forgotten about is the Lucky Houdalakis-trained Dyce, who ran two well below par races subseqeunt to his outstanding Gr 1 World Pool Cape Flying Championship victory, where he defeated the now dual Gr 1-winning sprinter Thunderstruck.
However, trainer Lucky Houdalakis revealed that Dyce has been gelded and he is now confident of a big run at Hollywoodbets Scottsville in the Gr 1 Golden Horse Sprint, despite his merit rating being 130 meaning he will have to carry topweight.
Lucky said, “He was haemo-concentrating, so it was either him becoming a daddy or an athlete and there are too many daddies out there, so we dedided on athlete and gelded him.”
Lucky has won the Golden Horse with topweight before.
The legendary J J The Jet Plane won it with topweight of 60kg as a three-year-old in 2008, although it was just as good a feat when he won it again carrying 58kg two years later in his comeback from an eight month layoff following a disappointing UK campaign.
Asked on Dyce’s chances of doing it, he replied, “He’s good enough. He actually looks like he has lightened up a bit, he is not as thick and bulky as he was.”
The William Longsword five-year-old will not have another run before the Golden Horse on June 1.
Lucky said, “He is still fit, he ran just the other day (April 6).”
Dyce has been working well at home since gelding.
J J The Jet Plane went on to win the Gr 1 Mercury Sprint after both of his Scottsville Gr 1 wins and Dyce will no doubt be out to emulate that double. The first sign of Dyce being a special horse was in fact over the present day Mercury course and distance, when winning the Gr 2 Umkhomazi Stakes over 1200m for two-year-olds by 4,30 lengths.
Lucky will also be taking Elegant Ice to Hollywoodbets Scottsville to run in the Gr 1 SA Fillies Sprint. The three-year-old What A Winter filly showed fine early pace last time out over 1160m at Turffontein Standside to overcome the unfavourable draw of one and claim the outside rail. She was able to accelerate off that pace and win by 3,25 lengths in her first time being ridden by Raymond Danielson. The handicappers duly gave her a maximum eight point raise. Lucky said he would keep Danielson aboard.
Dyce, bred and owned by Dave Shawe, is not the only good homebred William Longsword in the Houdalakis yard.
On Saturday they won the Listed Secretariat Stakes over 1450m with Sabre Strike, a Piet van Schoor-homebred William Longsword three-year-old gelding.
Lucky said, “Piet has been with me for a long time and is one of the gentleman of the game.”
Sabre Strike won by 0,60 lengths under Raymond Danielson, despite it being only his third career start and having to carry 56kg off a 90 merit rating under the handicap conditions.
Lucky said Sabre Strike was not necessarily a late bloomer and clarified, “He is just a problem. He has a very skew leg and is a very big horse, so the knee takes all the pressure because he comes down skew on it. So after every run we have to patch him up and we start again. It is unfortunate. In not one of his three runs has he been anywhere near his best, not even close.”
And yet he won on debut by 4,75 lengths over 1200m, before running a 2,75 length second in a Graduation Plate over 1450m to the 104 merit rated Barbaresco when receiving just 3kg, and he then won a Listed event.
“It has just been pure ability what he has done. We just have to look after him and hope that one day he can learn to run like that, I’ve had horses before where you battle, you battle, you battle and eventually they come right and that is what we hope and pray for because he is a very good horse. At present he also doesn’t even know how to run, he runs all over the place, he’s like a boat without a rudder.”
Lucky is not sure how far Sabre Strike will get as he does have a lot of speed, but he said he was such a big, long-striding horse he would have the ability to put his opponents under pressure over a mile. The Egoli Mile might be an option on June 9 if he is ready enough.
Lucky felt shortly after the start of the BSA National Yearling Sale he would battle to get any horses, such were the prices, so he was pleased to end up getting six. His biggest owner Dave Shawe bought four for him and Laurence Wernars bought two.
He said, “Every now and again (at those expensive sales) something falls through the cracks.”
Tomorrow (Thursday), the yard will have a good chance with Munchkin in race 5 over 1000m. This horse should be way higher than a 75 merit rating, according to the homework he puts in. However, he looks to have found his niche over 1000m and could follow up on his last win.
His is a half-brother to the former Houdalakis-trained Egyptian Mau, who was one of the “Flying Springboks”, exported to the USA after being bought by a partnership that included Barry Irwin’s Team Valor International.
Egyptian Mau (Fire Away) and Munchkin are also half-siblings of the exciting two-year-old Vercingetorix gelding Cymric, who has already won a Gr 3 for Johan Janse van Vuuren.
