Equus Horse Of The Year the Mike and Matthew de Kock-trained Dave The King returned from a layoff of close to six months to win the same race he won last year and he did it just as easily. (Candiese Lenferna Photography).
Dave The King bounced back to his best at Hollywoodbets Scottsville yesterday when winning the same 1500m event he had won last year on his way to winning the Gr 1 wfa Hollywoodbets Gold Challenge and Gr 1 wfa World Pool Champions Cup, the two races that landed him the Equus Horse Of The Year Award.
Callan Murray took him to the front in the Class A Stakes event and played to his strength, i.e. his long run in, by letting out some rein around the turn. He entered the straight three lengths clear and if close to his best following a layoff of close to six months they were not going to catch him. So it proved and it was left to Hollywoodbets Durban July hopeful, the Nathan Kotzen-trained Royal Victory, to run on for a pleasing 3,20 length second with the former East Cape stalwart Cherry Ano, now trained by Wendy Whitehead, in third. De Kock’s first move after the big Global View gelding’s two well below par runs in Jo’Burg last November was to move him to Summerveld, which he prefers, and he then consulted with a top trainer and veterinarian in the USA, on the recommendation of Gary Barber, about his breathing issue. They worked it out and took it from there. Owners Larry Nestadt, Gary Player and the Ralphs Family can now look forward to another Gr 1 Champions Season campaign.
The first race over 1000m saw another victory for the leading freshman sire, Erik The Red, as his Peter Muscutt-trained son Little Boy Blue ran out the winner under Jabu Jacobs in a field of seven first-timers, beating the second favourite Trajanus (Danon Platina) by 0,40 lengths with favourite African Pride (Rafeef) next best.
In the second, a Maiden Juvenile Plate over 1000m, the Duncan Howells-trained Erupt filly Hierarchy built on her good debut to run out an easy 4,30 length winner under Kabelo Matsunyane.
There was a long delay to the third due to some fractious horses. Dean Kannemeyer would not have been pleased as his fancied first-timer Aristocratic loaded fine but eventually became restless when another horse, Indigo Ice, refused to load, leading to his scratching. Aristocratic was unloaded and then refused to load a second time and was also scratched. The race was won by the hard-knocking Glen Kotzen-trained Tripping Thunder (Trippi) under Chad Little. The three-year-old gelding was yet another horse to convert decent Cape Town form into an imediate win in another centre.
The fourth saw a narrow win over 1200m for the Dean Kannemeyer-trained Marsh Shirtliff homebred first-timer Princess Averni, who is by Vercingetorix out of Gr 1 Mercury Sprint winner Fly By Night (Jet Master).
In the fifth the Mike Miller-trained two-year-old One World gelding Brand New World had never placed in three runs against his own age group, but he improved with the step up to 1600m and beat older rivals by 0,30 lengths under Tristan Godden at 14/1 odds with Apache Ag running on strongly for second at 40/1 odds.
In the seventh over 1400m the Stuart Ferrie-trained Oratorio gelding Run To Rio showed tremedous resolve unnder Sean Veale to just get up in a blanket finish.
In the eighth over 1400m the Gareth van Zyl-trained Stars In Heaven (Danon Platina) was taken to the front from a wide draw by Athandiwe Mgudlwa and stayed on well down the inside to just hold on.
In the ninth over 1000m the Glen Kotzen-trained Connery (What A Winter) won five in a row between April and November last year and having dropped three points in five subsequent unplaced runs he got back to winning ways under Jacey Botes with a 1,50 length victory.
The last race over 1000m the Paul Gadsby-trained Vision To Achieve beat the boys under Gavin Lerena in an ultra competitive event.
