Eric Sands has come into this year’s WSB Met under the radar considering he is the trainer of the twice winner Rainbow Bridge, who is statistically the most successful Met horse in history.
He runs the former Grade 1 Cape Derby winner Golden Ducat.
He was very happy with the gallop he put up this week under big race jockey Christophe Soumillon.
The latter, who rode Golden Ducat in the L’Ormarins King’s Plate, has been back in Cape Town since Sunday.
Sands was also happy with the gallop his Grade 1 Pongracz Cape Flying Championship contender, Hitthemhardsunshine, put up under Sean Veale.
The three-year-old What A Winter gelding will be ridden on Saturday by Raymond “Supersub” Danielson.
At one stage the twice Grade 1-winning Golden Ducat was spoken about in almost the same revered tones as his half-brother Rainbow Bridge.
That was especially after he had pipped the latter to win the Grade 1 wfa Champions Cup in August 2020.
However, it was his Durban July performance five weeks earlier which showed Golden Ducat to have an engine with the potential to carry him to Met glory.
That day Sands wanted his pair, Rainbow Bridge and Golden Ducat, to come off the rail early from their low draws, knowing the inside horses can get boxed in nearing the straight. Therefore they went forward and halfway through the race Golden Ducat found himself one wide without cover in joint second place with just runaway pacemaker Silvano’s Pride ahead of him.
Golden Ducat towed his stablemate into the straight and the latter was recorded going through the 2000m mark in a time quicker than the Hollywoodbets Greyville 2000m course record held by London News.
Yet it was Golden Ducat, then just a three-year-old and admittedly receiving 7kg from Rainbow Bridge, who managed to stay on and finish in the frame, beaten just 1,90 lengths into fourth by the year older Belgarion whom he faced at level weights.
That was some feat by Golden Ducat, especially considering he had little to no cover throughout the race.
Golden Ducat showed he was not a one trick pony next time out in the Champions Cup over 1800m by coming from way off a strong pace with a storming run to pip Rainbow Bridge. He faced him on weight for age terms that day.
It was unfortunate that before his ultimate target the following season, the July, Golden Ducat sustained a suspensory ligament injury.
He was out for a year-and-a-half but made two good recent comeback runs, finishing a 2,75 length third to Jet Dark in the Grade 3 Cape Mile, receiving 2kg, in November and then finished a 2,55 length fourth in the Grade 2 WSB Green Point Stakes over 1600m on December 3.
The now six-year-old gelding by Philanthropist was off the pace last time out in the L’Ormarins King’s Plate and Sands was disappointed to see him not making much leeway and finishing a 7,40 length seventh.
However, Sands divulged Golden Ducat had not had a smooth build up into that race due to a muscle strain.
Sands yard as a whole had also been going through a lean spell, but at present the blood pictures show the yard to be on an upward curve.
He is much happier with Golden Ducat’s preparation into the Met.
It will be interesting if Golden Ducat is able to take advantage of the apparent lack of pace in Saturday’s big race from his pole position draw and put the more fancied horses under pressure.
Golden Ducat wears blinkers for the first time which will help him if going forward is the intention.
Sands and Soumillon would have worked out a strategy by the time of Saturday’s race in which to maximise the impact of Golden Ducat’s big engine.
Meanwhile, Hitthemhardsunshine also comes in to the Cape Flying under the radar.
He has only had one below par run, his last run when finishing a 3,10 length sixth in the Sophomore Sprint.
However, he did come out of that race with a problem which has now been sorted out and he is now back to his best.
Sands is not surprised by his price of 33/1 as he is a two-time winner taking on a Grade 1 weight for age field.
However, this is a horse who gave Charles Dickens 2kg over 1200m and was beaten just 1,50 lengths. He later gave the useful Trompie 4kg and was beaten just 1,25 lengths.
He might prove to be outstanding value.
Sands also has two runners in race 2, a special weights maiden over 1200m, Numzaan (Master Of My Fate) and Carriacou (Captain Of All), and said both were well.
