Picture: Michael “Muis” Roberts poses with the WSB Green Point Stakes trophy. See It Again will be out to make it three Gr 1 wins in thee starts over the 2000m distance on Saturday at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth (Image: Wayne Marks)
Michael Roberts has been arriving at Milnerton in the early hours and after leaving at around 11 a.m. he has returned in the afternoon at 3:00 p.m. to make sure no stone is left unturned in the preparation of hot favourite See It Again for Saturday’s WSB Cape Town Met.
The superstar Twice Over colt is staying at Paddy Kruyer’s yard.
“It is all systems go, nothing more we can do, it is now in the lap of the Gods. Now we hand it over to the pilot!” said Roberts.
Michael said See It Again would have come on from his L’Ormarins King’s Plate run.
He said, “People got a bit carried away because he won the Green Point so well, and even me, I was a little bit surprised, because it was a stepping stone race. The horse is not really a miler and he still beat the rest of them in the King’s Plate to be second. I would have liked to have seen more daylight between us and the third and the fourth horse. But he is very well. He’s well, he looks well, he looks good in himself.”
Regarding Piere Strydom’s concerns about the wide draw and the lack of pace, Michael said, “Before any horse race there are opinions that this one will go or that one will go, but at the end of the day it is all a bit of guess work.”
He said specifically about Saturday’s race, “Owners and trainers have orders they are going to give to the jockeys, but looking at the race there is no obvious strong pace. But I’m not really concerned. I don’t think the pace will be the cause if something had to go wrong.”
Michael said there had been a lot of Met talk around the training centre and he said about the Capetonians. “They have been very nice, rooting for him, and they have been complimentary, which can sometimes be unusual!”
When asked about the main danger, he replied, “I think truthfully speaking the danger is the running of the race. If we get a nice pace, a nice clean run race and there is not any stop and go … I can’t pinpoint a horse … or lets put it this way, I am not frightened of another horse.”
Royal Aussie was only 1,25 lengths behind See It Again in the L’Ormarins King’s Plate, but Michael said, “Yes but I know we ran at least ten pounds below our best, in my book. That is me, nobody has told me that, I know in my heart that that wasn’t my horse’s run. It was just because of the way the race unfolded. Piere was in the right place, everything went right but I never anticipated the leaders would fold so quickly. They folded like they were shot at the top of the straight. As everybody knows my horse has never won from up there. Every race, from his maiden onward, he loves coming through horses. As I said earlier this is just my view of him not having put more daylight between him and the other horses, it is not about him troubling the winner, I mean the winner on the day was at his best and we know what he can do over 1600m.”
Michael added, “But now we are going into our territory.”
Michael concluded, “Any Gr 1 race is hard to win … if they were running it on paper we would come home smoking. I won’t stick my neck out yet, but I know how good this horse is and he’s shown how good he is. He’s been a bit unlucky but he is a very good horse … I will take on any horse in the country with him!!”
