Dave The King being led in after his easy win in the Gr 1 wfa HKJC Champions Cup (Candiese Lenferna Photography)
The Equus Horse Of The Year Dave The King will remain in South Africa for the time being and has the Allied-Steelrode Onamission Charity Mile as his first target and the L’Ormarins King’s Plate is also a chief target, whilst a crack at the Betway Summer Cup is going to be considered whilst the Dubai Carnival and the QE II Cup In Hong Kong are longshot ambitions.
Trainer Mike de Kock said, “I think he’s capable of winning on the international stage, no doubt about it. If I still had a Dubai string he would be on his way already. He’s quite a strong, sound horse and it would be really nice to have him in the Dubai Carnival. There’s a chance we can get him there on World Cup night and I would like to get him to the QE II also (in Hong Kong). But it’s going to be difficult, it all depends on the quarantine dates, and it also means a horse doesn’t work for 14 to 16 days. So it is a longshot, but it is definitely an ambition.”
Dave The King was one of six horses to win two Gr 1s last season, but he was the only one of those to win two open weight for age Gr 1s, so deserved to be named Equus Horse Of The Year.
The big Global View gelding takes a strong hold and goes for home as far as 1000m out as he is able to use his enormous stride to sustain a strong gallop all the way to the line.
However, his style of running makes him best suited to a mile and an easy 1800m. His big wins were in the Gr 1 Hollywoodbets Gold Challenge over 1600m and the Gr 1 HKJC Champions Cup over 1800m, both at the tight Hollywoodbets Greyville racecourse.
A 2000m trip might stretch him a touch, but on the other hand he has only tried that far once since gelding, an operation which saw him settling better than he had before. He ran in the Gr 1 wfa Premier’s Champions Challenge over 2000m as a gelding and on the tough Turffontein Standside track finished a 4,25 length fourth to Royal Victory.
The Gr 2 Allied Steelrode Charity Mile at Turffontein Standside on November 2 and the L’Ormarins King’s Plate, which is a Gr 1 race over 1600m in January, are obvious targets.
However, De Kock has the Summer Cup as a maybe too and said, “Obviously I’ll enter him in the Summer Cup, given that it’s a R6 million race and the weights are condensed. I’ll see what the field is like, you would want to see who you’re up against. I’ll leave my options open, given there are the condensed conditions and probably six million other reasons.”
Dave The King was bred by the Gary Player Stud and is owned by Larry Nestadt, Gary Player and Lindsay Ralphs’ Ralphs Racing (Pty) Ltd, whose nominee is Miss Kathryn Ralphs.
Dave The King’s dam, the Jet Master mare Touche, was covered by Global View at Dr Ashley and Rose Parker’s Ascot Stud and she stayed their during her pregnancy until Dave The King was born and then mare and foal moved to Jan Mantel’s Millstream Farm.
