Viva’s Liberte powers home under Serino Moodley at Hollywoodbets Durbanville on October 8 (Picture: Wayne Marks)
Lady Christine Laidlaw’s Khaya Stables seem to have a conveyor belt of stars at present led by the like of Gimme A Prince and The Real Prince and their retained jockey Craig Zackey was never going to have an easy choice choosing which of Lady Laidlaw’s potential three-year-old classic colts to ride with the Dean Kannemeyer-trained Gimmie Rules and the Candice Bass-trained Viva’s Liberte striking as probable candidates for the Gr 1 Hollywoodbets Cape Guineas.
Her racing manager Jehan Malherbe revealed Zackey had chosen to stick with Gimmie Rules, but he emphasised that this was a political decision and was not an indication that Gimmie Rules was regarded as better than Viva’s Liberte.
He said, “I don’t want to mislead the public by saying that Gimmie Rules is the better of the two, that is not necessarily the case at all. Candice needed to have time to secure a jockey for the upcoming features, so Craig was forced into making an early decision and as he is Dean Kannemeyer’s stable jockey he made the political decision to stick with his stable.”
Gimmie Rules is a full-brother to both Equus Champion Sprinter Gimme A Prince and Hollywoodbets Durban July winner The Real Prince.
Kannemeyer has always assessed him to be a horse who would appreciate going over further than sprints, so he looks more likely to follow in the footsteps of The Real Prince than Gimme A Prince.
He showed an exceptional turn of foot when winning over 1250m last Wednesday and if he proves capable of staying a mile he will be a most exciting Guineas prospect.
Meanwhile, Serino Moodley took the ride on Viva’s Liberte on October 8, where he powered to a 2,50 length victory in a Class 4 event over 1400m running off an 88 merit rating. He is now unbeaten in two starts.
He will relish the step up to a mile and will likely relish 2000m too, being by Vercingetorix out of Jet Master mare Viva Maria.
Vercingetorix imparts more precocity and speed than his sire Silvano, but he did win the Gr 1 Daily News 2000 and the Gr 1 Jebel Hatta over 1800m in Dubai.
Viva Maria won the Gr 1 Woolavington 2000.
The Bass yard said Viva’s Liberte would take the traditional feature route for a classic horse i.e. he will start off in the Gr 2 Punter’s Cup over 1600m on November 22 at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth and then go for the Hollywoodbets Cape Guineas three weeks later. Those two races will dictate his future, but it would be no surprise to see him in races like the Gr 1 Spashout Cape Derby, the Gr 1 Daily News 2000 and the Gr 1 Hollywoodbets Durban July, because to date whilst he has not shown the same instantaneous turn of foot that Gimme Rules possesses, he looks to have plenty of class and builds up his finishing run. He looks to be one who will stay a trip.
However, Jehan Malherbe excercised a word of caution and said, “They are both just winning Class 4 Handicaps at the moment, we don’t know whether either one of them is going to be good enough to get to the Guineas, we will have to wait and see.”
From what has been seen from the pair to date they do look good enough.
Another Kannemeyer-trained Khaya Stables-owned three-year-old who could join them is Gallic Victor, a Vercingetorix colt who caught the eye running on from last over 1600m on Saturday, although the bird had flown out in front and he had to settle for second. He had won easily and impressively on debut over 1400m at Hollywoodbets Scottsville back in July and this was just his second career start.
