Grant Maroun was still monitoring his gelding Anfields Rocket on Wednesday, to see how he had pulled up after winning Saturday’s Grade 3 Allied Steelrode Graham Beck Stakes over 1400m, and there are other factors to consider before committing to the Grade 1 Hollywoodbets Cape Guineas.
Maroun both trains and owns the Klawervlei Stud-bred horse and said, “There are also races in Jo’burg which he might end up missing if the trip is too hard on him. I don’t have any experience of travelling down to Cape Town, so don’t really know how it effects horses, but it is a R2 million race so I do have to seriously think about it. He will either run in the Dingaans or the Cape Guineas and I will decide by the end of next week.”
Maroun comes form a long line of racing horsemen, so knows the ins and outs of the game and was surprised to hear on TV that he had believed his horse to be a certainty.
He said, “We did expect a good run, but I wasn’t losing my head and thinking he was a good thing.”
He revealed that some had told him he was making a mistake keeping young Kaidan Brewer on for the race and he said, “Kaidan is very underrated and is going to be a proper little rider. He knows the horse and nobody else was going to ride him, I was very happy to have him on.”
He added the strongly built Brewer reminded him of Weichong Marwing in the saddle, the latter’s sublime seat and exceptional balance being his key assets.
Brewer repaid the guv’nor by riding a faultless race.
Maroun said, “The race worked out differently to what I had thought, but it worked out well. The pace was hot and the horses drawn on the outside who tried to go forward all finished poorly, so I think we made the right decision to drop him out.”
Grant bought Anfields Rocket as a weanling on an online auction for a mere R11,000. The horse has thus joined the growing list of bargains who have have been prominent in feature races recently.
He said, “I thought they had written the stallion (Coup De Grace) off too soon, I felt there was still something there. We brought him mainly on his looks having seen the videos of his conformation. I did have two Coup De Graces before. They had showed us quite a bit at home, but had issues – you couldn’t blame it on the stallion. My son Ryan also remembered Anfields Rocket’s half-brother Counts Rocket had been full of potential and had been highly regarded by trainer Glen Kotzen, but had gone wrong.”
Counts Rocket was a Listed winner as a juvenile and finished third in the Grade 3 Politician Stakes.
Grant and Ryan are both big LIverpool F.C fans and decided to name the Coup De Grace youngster in the famous club’s honour. Grant had suggested “Merseyside Rocket” but Ryan’s suggestion won the day.
Anfields Rocket was promising from day one in training.
Grant said, “He wasn’t flashy but he gave every jockey who rode him a good feel and they all said he was a very good horse. When we jumped him to pass him at the gates for the first time he showed us how good he was.”
Time will tell whether the athletic chestnut Anfields Rocket will be the next Grade 1 winner for a famous racing family.
