See It Again and Piere Strydom out to land a third Gr 1 together (Candiese Lenferna Photography)
See It Again will be hoping to go one better than last year in the Gr 1 weight for age HKJC Champions Cup over 1800m at Hollywoodbets Greyville on July 28 (Sunday) and he is in fine shape at Summerveld.
He is the best weighted horse in the ten-horse field off his 131 merit rating, but for the second year in a row he has to overcome a wide draw, although there is one less runner in this year’s race.
Trainer Michael Roberts is bullish and said, “He has done very well since the July. We’re very happy with him. He did a bit of work on Saturday morning and it’s all systems go.”
Asked for his take on the Hollywoodbets Durban July, in which he was impeded late in the race, he said, “It’s a difficult one, it was obviously disappointing, although it was no fault of Piere’s (Strydom) or the horse. Unfortunately, the winner shifting in and the second placed horse shifting out a wee bit cost us third place.”
Roberts did not believe an earlier incident at the halfway mark had any effect on See It Again’s chances.
He said, “I think we missed most of it. There was a little bit of movement there, but I think we were lucky … we just got away from it.”
Asked whether he had considered objecting, he said, “I went to view the film and I was considering objecting in the back of my mind, but I know what the rules say. If we were third, I definitely would have objected, most definitely, but we’ve finished fifth and unfortunately we couldn’t jump the other horses.”
Roberts said he was happy to be drawn ten out of ten for Sunday’s big race.
He said, “I just hope we get a clean run race. He’s well, my horse, and all things being equal they’ve got to beat us.”
See It Again had a tendency to jump just a touch slowly last season, which saw Piere Strydom having a choice in last year’s race of dropping him out well back or being caught wide. See It Again ended up having too much to do and couldn’t catch Princess Calla, although it was ceratinly no disgrace finishing 1,30 lengths back to a top class filly who had a 2,5kg gender allowance.
Reminded of this Roberts said, “In the July he jumped on terms and, although he’s no speed machine at the starting stalls, for a stayer that’s good enough for me.”
Asked whether he would want to be handier this year, he said, “It all depends on the pace. You can’t start saying where you want to be in a race and then the pace changes. But, I think the danger, and you can’t give him too much leeway, is Dave the King, as he is a strong galloper and will most definitely be on the pace.”
He mentioned Cousin Casey as another danger.
The yard run Sun Blushed in the Gr 1 Mercury Sprint from draw seven out of 13.
Michael said, “It’s a tough race on our rating, but his run in the Golden Horse was a good run. We weren’t beaten far so we had to take our chances. He was in the Post Merchants but I scratched him because he was drawn on the outside. I was prepared to do that. We know he loves Scottsville, but he has run some very nice races at Greyville as well.”
Sun Blushed is officially 5,5kg under sufferance with the best weighted Golden Sickle, but on Golden Horse Sprint form he faces the favourite Lucky Lad on half-a-kilogram worse terms for a 1,50 length beating, although Lucky Lad as a three-year-old would have theoretically made close to 1kg improvement since then.
