Jubilation after Jan van Goyen had won the Gr 1 World Pool Moment Of The Day Champion Stakes
Jan van Goyen, Dave The King and Spumate Dolce are being readied for feature race campaigns, but it hasn’t gone as well for their Mike and Mathew de Kock-trained stablemate Immediate Edge, while their Gr 2-winning grey stablemate White Pearl has been purchased and retired to stud and the classy Greaterix comes back on Saturday.
The De Kock yard ended the season with a bang when the Master Of My Fate colt Jan van Goyen more than fulfilled his potential by slamming a good field in the Gr 1 World Pool Moment Of The Day Champion Stakes over 1600m at Hollywoodbets Greyville by 3,70 lengths under Callan Murray on World Pool Gold Cup day.
Mathew de Kock said, “We are aiming him at the Holywoodbets Cape Guineas. He drew very badly in the Spring Challenge so we’re not running him there and he probably starts on Charity Mile day (in the Gr 3 Betway Graham Beck Stakes over 1400m). It will then probably be the Dingaans (on Betway Summer Cup day November 29) and then the Cape Guineas (on December 13).”
He said Jan van Goyen, who has three wins and a second from four career starts to date, had been doing “very well”.
The 2023/2024 Equus Horse Of The Year Dave The King could have put the cherry on the top for the De Kocks on Gold Cup day by defending his HKJC Champions Cup crown, but he failed to kick on in his usual style after controlling the pace early and then stretching them from a long way out in his customary style.
He finished a 2,95 length fifth, which was no disgrace behind Gladatorian, The Real Prince, See It Again and Fire Attack, but more was expected and Mathew said, “Obviously we were disappointed he never won, but we couldn’t put a finger on it. It just wasn’t his best day.”
Dave The King’s form points to him enjoying KZN and he duly stayed at Summerveld after the Champions Cup.
He will be raiding Cape Town to take in the Green Point Stakes on December 13 and the L’Ormarins King’s Plate on the first Saturday of January.
Both Jan van Goyen and Dave The King will depart for Cape Town close to their first races, which means they run the risk of not being able to travel if there is an African Horse Sickness breakout within a 30km radius of whereever they are traveling from.
Mathew said, “We’re not going to put them out of their comfort zones, so if we get stuck, we get stuck. It is otherwise just a nightmare staff-wise and with the horses comfortable where they are, you will be playing bit of Russian Roulette anyway.”
Immediate Edge looked to be a ready made Betway Summer Cup candidate, but Mathew revealed, “He didn’t come through the July very well. We gave him a holiday and he’s just taking a bit longer to be spot on, so he’s not going to be ready for the Summer Cup.”
The yard’s Gr 2 Wilgebosdrift Gauteng Fillies Guineas winner Spumante Dolce, who was also runner up in all of the Gr 1 Empress Club Stakes, the Gr 1 Daily News 2000 and the Gr 2 WSB Fillies Guineas, has been in good shape.
Mathew said, “She will probably be our Summer Cup horse. She will have her first run in the Charity Mile and her second run in the Summer Cup.”
White Pearl won the Gr 2 Mike de Kock Ipi Tombe Challenge last season for the ASSM Syndicate and she was sold for R1,2 million at a Filly and Mare Sale in August, purchased by Vendel Civils.
She is currently at Boland Stud.
The classy grey Vercingetorix colt Greaterix comes back from a seven month layoff in a 1450m Conditions Plate at Turffontein Inside on Saturday. The mile seemed to stretch him at the highest level last season, so the trip on Saturday will be ideal and it should answer some questions about where he will go this season.
