The LQP will become the LKP (Capefestivals.co.za)

L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate Becomes L’Ormarins King’s Plate

The name of South Africa’s premier weight for age mile event is dependent on who the monarch is at the time.

It will hence switch to the King’s Plate as King Charles III has now replaced his late mother Queen Elizabeth II as the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom.

L’Ormarins Press Release:

South Africa’s premier WFA mile was first run in honour of Queen Victoria after she gifted a silver plate and 500 sovereigns to the South African Turf Club.

The inaugural contest, staged as The Queen’s Plate, was held as a heats event and won by Cape Town owner Mr Chiappini’s horse, Dispatch in April 1861. The event has maintained its royal ties meticulously ever since.

The race was run as the King’s Plate from the reign of Edward VII through to George VI. Reverting to the Queen’s Plate when Queen Elizabeth II ascended to the throne in 1952, it continued to run under that name until 2022.

It is an honour to be associated with an event that carried her name for a remarkable 70 years.

In keeping with the qualities of grace, elegance and above all, tradition that she so embodied, L’Ormarins is proud to continue that legacy under the reign of King Charles III under the new banner of the King’s Plate.

The 2023 L’Ormarins King’s Plate will be held on Saturday, 7th January 2023 at Kenilworth Racecourse, Cape Town.

Picture: Imposing being led in after impressing today (Candiese Lenferna Photography)

Imposing Back On Track With Impressive Win

Imposing (Visionaire) is one of a number of Glen Kotzen-trained three-year-olds with classic potential and after a disappointing handicap debut last time out he made amends today in no uncertain terms on the Hollywoodbets Greyville polytrack.

It looked like a line could be drawn through his previous start over 1600m as he was slowly away and never got in to the race, finishing last.

Today over 1400m, he was not well away again, but Calvin Habib woke him up and had him in about fourth place with cover in the small six horse field.

The pace was not good and Habib decided to make his move on the final turn.

Imposing quickened superbly and hit the front shortly after entering the straight.

He kept up a high stride tempo until being eased for the last 50m when well clear.

He started at generous odds of 13/2.

Gladatorian had beaten Imposing by just half-a-length in the Grade 1 Gold Medallion over 1200m last season and had to give the latter 2kg today.

Therefore, Gladatorian represented no value at odds of 83/100.

So it proved as Imposing beat him easing up by 2,70 lengths.

Imposing is still maturing and should get better and better as the season goes on.

Picture: Luke Ferraris gets up on the Klawervlei Stud-bred Vercingetorix gelding Super Warrior, who was known in SA as Fearless Warrior (hkjc.com).

Vercingetorix Helps Ferraris Land Second Hong Kong Double

Luke Ferraris ended last season with a bang, scoring his first Hong Kong double in the final meeting.

Today’s Happy Valley races were the second meeting of the new season and Ferraris won the first two races on the card.

For good measure, his South African compatriots Lyle Hewitson and Douglas Whyte then combined to win the third race with Valiant Elegance (Salade).

Adding to the South African flavour was that Ferraris’s win in the first was aboard the six-year-old South African-bred Vercingetorix gelding Super Commander, who started at long odds of 30/1.

Super Commander was known in South Africa as Fearless Warrior.

The Klawervlei Stud-bred colt was trained to two wins in four starts by Vaughan Marshall.

He was beaten half-a-length by the What A Winter colt Armando in his last start out here in the Grade 2 Cape Of Good Hope Nursery over 1200m.

Both of those horses then made their way to Hong Kong.

Armando, who was trained by Brett Crawford in SA and was unbeaten in three starts, had no success in Hong Kong and has been retired.

Super Commander has now won two races on the island but his first win came after having dropped from an initial rating of 74 down to 46.

Another interesting aside is that Super Commander’s dam War Path (Captain Al) won the controversial race at Clairwood a few years ago which caused a near riot, forcing the meeting to be abandoned.

The cause of the uproar was a horse called My Sanctuary, who is the dam of none other than Equus Three-year-old champion of last season, Safe Passage.

Super Commander is trained by Pierre Ng.

Ferraris second win was aboard 3/1 shot Winning Icey (Hinchinbrook), who is trained by four-times Hong Kong champion trainer Caspar Fownes.

Meanwhile, Hewitson has now won no fewer than five races on Valiant Elegance.

Rain In Holland Looked Athletic Even As A Three-day-old

Picture: Equus Champion Three-year-old Filly Rain In Holland (by Duke Of Marmalade out of Imvula (GB) (Aqlaam (GB)), a homebred from Drakenstein Stud, is pictured here as a three day old foal in 2018. Trainer Sean Tarry recently reported Rain In Holland to have recovered well from a procedure done on an entrapped epiglottis. Her chief target is the Grade 1 Cartier Paddock Stakes.

Picture: This fine looking colt is by Gold Standard out of a half-sister to Lanner Falcon (FreemanStallions).

Name Sought For Gold Standard Foal Out Of Half-Sister To Lanner Falcon

Freeman Stallions are seeking a name for the Drakenstein Stud colt pictured above, who is by Gold Standard out of Giboski (Philanthropist).

Giboski is an unraced half-sister to Grade 2 winner Lanner Falcon (Trippi) and to thrice Grade 3-winner Silver Host (Silvano).

Turf Talk’s suggestion for the name would be Bullion Reserve. (derived from Gold Standard and Philanthropist’s dam Hidden Reserve).

Picture: Baaeed: will not run in the Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp on October 2 (Edward Whitaker (racingpost.com/photos))

Baaeed Set For Champion Stakes Rather Than Arc

‘We can’t do both’

By David Milnes (Racing Post, Newmarket correspondent)

Baaeed will not run in arguably Europe’s greatest race after connections decided to miss the Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe and head for the Qipco Champion Stakes at Ascot instead.

The unbeaten son of Sea The Stars would have needed to be supplemented for the Arc by his owner-breeders Shadwell at a cost of €120,000.

The outfit’s late supremo Hamdan Al Maktoum never won the Longchamp highlight and his daughter Sheikha Hissa had been due to speak to Baaeed’s Newmarket-based trainer William Haggas this week about plans.

A decision emerged on Wednesday afternoon that the Ascot prize, which was always Haggas’s first intention, had come out on top as the preferred option.

Prior to the news, Baaeed, flawless in ten races, had been Coral’s 9-4 favourite for the Arc, while the firm had him at 1-3 for the Champion Stakes, which takes place on October 15.

Ricky Hall, Baaeed’s devoted groom, put the star four-year-old through his paces in Newmarket on Wednesday morning after which his camp came to the conclusion that he would not contest the Arc, a race widely regarded as one of the world’s best and most prestigious.

Haggas said: “After much consultation with Sheikha Hissa and her team we have decided that Baaeed’s final start will be in the Champion Stakes at Ascot on October 15.

“He was very impressive in the Juddmonte International and it was only right that we explored every option. I, in particular, was keen to keep him to a mile and a quarter, therefore the Champion Stakes was the only logical solution.

“I understand many will be disappointed he’s not running in the Arc but we can’t do both and Ascot it will be.”

Haggas had made no secret all season that ending on Champions Day was his preference, but Baaeed’s imperious performance in the Juddmonte International at York meant the Arc, which is staged over a mile and a half, was discussed as a possible farewell slot before the exceptional colt’s retirement to stud.

However, the £1.3 million Champion Stakes is where, wellbeing permitting, he will bow out when the race’s winning prize of £737,230 could come in handy in Haggas’s bid for a first trainers’ title.

In the absence of Baaeed, last weekend’s impressive Irish Champion Stakes winner Luxembourg is the new Arc favourite at 4-1 with Coral, with Alpinista second in the market at 5-1.

Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe (October 2, Longchamp)

Coral: 4 Luxembourg, 5 Alpinista, 8 Titleholder, Torquator Tasso, 9 Onesto, 14 Adayar, 16 La Parisienne, Westover, 20 Al Hakeem, Do Deuce, 25 bar

Qipco Champion Stakes (October 15, Ascot)

Coral: 1-3 Baaeed, 5 Vadeni, 6 Adayar, Luxembourg, 8 Nashwa, Onesto, 10 Bay Bridge, 12 Erevann, Mishriff, 14 Dubai Honour, La Petite Coco, Lord North, Maljoom, Sealiway, 16 bar

Picture: Calvin Habib’s second leg of his treble on Raven’s Sword (William Longsword) provided a third winner in the last two KZN meetings for the combination of Wendy Whitehead and Sandy Arundel’s Itssa It & Business Solutions (Pty) Ltd (Candiese Lenferna).

Trebles For Habib And Mgudlwa, Doubles For Kotzen And Puller

Calvin Habib and Ant Mgudlwa both scored trebles on the Hollywoodbets Greyville poly today.

Two of Mgudlwa’s wins were for Garth Puller who went to nine winners for the season at a strike rate of 8.26%.

Glen Kotzen also scored a double to go to 12 winners for the season at a strike rate of 16%.

Habib has now ridden 21 winners for the season at a strike rate of 9,59%.

He is 12 winners behind national log leader Keagan de Melo, who had a blank today.

Mgudlwa has had 8 winners at a strike rate of 12.12%.

Today’s Question

What is the oldest continuously run throughbred horse race in North America?

Picture: Northern Dancer was a winner of this race in 1964.

Turffontein Inside Fields

Picture: Safe Conduct (Bodemeister), 2021 Queen’s Plate winner, ridden by Jose Ortiz Jr. at Woodbine Racetrack, Toronto, Canada, over one mile and two furlongs on a Tapeta surface, photographed by Mike F. Campbell.

Today’s Question Answer

The Gr 1 King’s Plate run at Woodbine in Canada, usually in June or July, is North America’s oldest continuously run race.

It form’s the first leg of the Canadian Triple Crown.

It’s name has altered between Queen’s Plate and King’s Plate in exactly the same way as South Africa’s equivalent i.e. its name depends on who the monarch is at the time.

In 1859, when Canada West was still a colony of Britain, the then-president of the Toronto Turf Club, Sir Casimir Gzowski, petitioned Queen Victoria to grant a plate for a new race in the territory. Upon royal assent, the first Queen’s Plate was run on June 27, 1860, at the Carleton racetrack in Toronto.

Therefore it is is about a year older than South Africa’s Queen’s Plate, which had its first running in April 1861.

Despite it’s name, the winning owner is presented with a gold cup rather than a plate.

The most famous winner of the King’s Plate is Northern Dancer, who won it in 1964, before going on to become one of the most influential stallions in thoroughbred history.

Turf Talk Newsletter – 14 September 2022