Picture: Mocha Blend enjoying her breakfast at Summerveld this morning
Frank Robinson has been bringing the Betway Summer Cup champion Mocha Blend on steadily with the defense of her title in mind.
The strongly built five-year-old mare is looking in mint condition, but interestingly, despite her size, she is actually dwarfed by the horse in the next box, Chocolate Mousse, an unraced Rafeef three-year-old filly who is the first foal of the Equus Horse Of The Year Summer Pudding.
Frank said out of Summerveld yesterday (Tuesday), “Mocha Blend is probably going to go for the Gr 2 Allied-Steelrode Onamission Charity Mile. There are a few other races I’m looking at, but she will just go up for one race on the Highveld before coming back to Summerveld and then going back up for the Summer Cup. But the first race will probably be the Charity Mile. She will go into that race with 59kg. She will run a big race over a mile at Turffontein Standside.”
He said about her present excercise regime, “I am picking it up nicely now. The rain hasn’t helped, but she has had a couple of grass gallops. I have got her in a very good place and Tristan (Godden) said he actually thinks she is feeling much better than she even did last year.”
Last year Mocha Blend ran second in a Middle Stakes race on the Hollywodbets Greyville poly in October before going up to Jo’Burg and running an unlucky second in the Listed Betway Summer Pudding Handicap over 1600m at Turffontein Standside on November 9, three weeks before the Summer Cup.
She ran off a 105 merit rating in the big one, meaning she was officially 5,5kg under sufferance, but ran on strongly to win by half-a-length.
Today she is rated 120, but Frank is not worried about the weights.
He said, “There is only a 6kg spread in the weights and she is a big strong mare who carried 63kg to win the Gr 2 Bet With The World Gold Bracelet over 2000m in her last start of last season. She won it well, because just look at the strength of her.”
The Charity Milke is on October 31, four weeks before the Summer Cup, so she will go in with a similar preparation to last year.
Mocha Blend is looked after like a Queen and has a big appetite.
Frank said, “I give her lucerne early in the morning for her stomach, it just settles her stomach, it creates like a splash-pad on their stomachs. Then she goes and does her work and then gets her normal food when she comes back. This is a mixture of equifeed and it includes electrolytes and salt and a bit of oil as well. At two O’clock in the afternoon she gets a scoop of oats. At night she gets four scoops of her normal feed again.”
Frank said Mocha Blend was an exceptionally good eater and leaves absolutely nothing.
She also has an exceptionally good temperament, laid back and good natured and never loses her temper.
Another noticeable trait of hers is big ears.
Frank said, “Henry Cecil was a great trainer of fillies and he used to get fillies with big ears. All of his top fillies had big ears.”
Mocha Blend has a gleaming coat at present and she has a big and bold eye.
The Mauritzfontein Stud-homebred should make a bold bid to retain her crown in the Gr 1 R6 million Betway Summer Cup over the 2000m trip at Turffontein Standside on November 28.
Chocolate Mousse is also a Mauritzfontein Stud-homebred.
Frank said he had had to go slowly with this well-named dark bay due to her size.
He added, “Like Mocha Blend, she also has a lovely temperament. I couldn’t get stuck into her because of her size, I have had to go very slowly and carefully with her. She was 600kg on the scales and I have slowly taken the weight off.”
