Montien is a homebred of Terry and Annabel Andrews and is also owned by Greg & Des Delponte & Mr M P Williams. (Picture: Wayne Marks)
Montien was totally ignored by pundits and punters in the Gr 1 L’Ormarins King’s Plate and after he had run second some would have rued not having looked closer at his overall form as well as the finer details of his LKP run last year.
The Piet Botha-trained Louis The King gelding now runs in the WSB Met, along with his stablemate Baratheon, and many will be more aware of him than they were last time out.
Botha thought he had the LKP won and revealed, “I always knew that One Stripe was the horse to beat. So, watching the race I thought One Stripe was out of his ground behind the wrong horses, so I sort of wrote him off. I said, ‘Well he can’t beat us, so that’s fine’. In the last 200m I’m thinking ‘Ok we’ve got it’ and all of a sudden that horse (One Stripe) bursts through and I was like, wow, I don’t undestand how that horse did it! But I was quite happy. One Stripe obviously deserved to win it. He is a better horse than I initially thought. I was still very proud. It is not often you are going to run against a horse like One Stripe, who is a phenomenal horse, so I was super, super excited (to finish a 1,75 length second).”
Montien, a big, rangy horse who possesses a big action, finished a 4,60 length fifth in the LKP last season.
However, he had a valid excuse as the jockey dropped the rein halfway down the straight.
Considering the victor last season was the celebrated Charles Dickens, Montien’s price for this year’s renewal of 75/1 was too big and the shrewd would have been handsomely rewarded.
He is now 20/1 for the WSB Met, although there would be more confidence if it was over a mile.
Botha was asked about his stamina capacity and replied, “I am not convinced that in Cape Town he is a 2000m horse. I think he is probably just, just going to get the 2000m. 1800m is nice for him, but I think he can just, just get 2000m.”
Montien did run in the WSB Met last year. After a slow start he was last early. He quickly moved up into the lead before settling behind pacemaker Rascallion, who came around from a wide draw to take it up before the first turn. Montien was prominent until about the 200m mark. However, he faded late to be beaten 7,65 lengths into sixth place.
The slow start coupled with his stamina question marks had not augured well.
However, Piet added, “But last year there were also so many hiccups. There were a lot of sick horses in our yard at the time and they were doing a lot of rennovations at the yard too. There was just too much going on for him, so he didn’t have a good prep last year.”
Piet said at present he was doing “very, very well.”
Another thing in his favour will be the prevailing going at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth, which is firm and very fast. That should make the 2000m trip slightly easier to get.
Piet said before Wednesday’s draw ceremony he would have liked to have drawn of six or seven which would allow him “to go to the front, if nothing else goes, or sit second or third.”
He added, “From a one draw you need to bustle a horse and that’s not always ideal, I wouldn’t want him to have to do that.”
He ended up with draw 15 out of 17, which he would at least have preferred to draw one.
He said about Baratheon, “He’s also doing very, very well. He has unfortunately not had the greatest preparation. His blood was not good, so things haven’t really gone well for him, but he’s looking very good at the moment and he came back well from his last run. He’s a six-year-old and has never won a Graded race, so it’s a tough race. To expect him to win a race like this is obviously ludicrous but I just feel he will hold his own and if the form horses don’t pick up their heels he will be there and can get into the placings if all goes well for him.”
The Jackson gelding finished just 2,85 lengths back in the Gr 2 Anthonij Rupert Wyne Premier Trophy over 1800m last time out and was at level weights with the winner Rascallion.
Piet concluded by pointing out, “Rascallion must be one of the horses to beat in the Met, so there’s no reason Baratheon can’t run a place.”
