Picture: Silver Sanctuary (JC Photos)
Mike de Kock might run two of his Gr 1 winners from last season, Silver Sanctuary and Equus Horse Of The Year Dave The King, in the R6 million Betway Summer Cup, but he is not certain the latter will go that route.
He said about Silver Sanctuary, who won the Gr 1 Woolavington 2000 last season after a host of close up finishes in Graded races, including two Gr 1 runner up finishes, “She runs in a Pinnacle Stakes race over 1600m on Saturday, which she is going to need, and she will then need another one before the Summer Cup.”
De Kock has won nine Summer Cups, but landing the tenth has proved elusive as his last win in the big race was with Silvano filly Flirtation in 2009.
Silver Sanctuary is one of a “good few” De Kock horses who might travel to Cape Town. She was a narrow runner up in the Gr 1 WSB Cape Fillies Guineas last season and her obvious target in Cape Town this season would be the Gr 1 Cartier Paddock Stakes over 1800m.
De Kock said Dave The King’s chief aim would be the Gr 1 L’Ormarins King’s Plate.
He said, “Dave The King will be entered in the Allied Steelrode Onamission Charity Mile and the Betway Summer Cup, but his main mission is the L’Ormarins King’s Plate. I would like to give him two prep runs before the King’s Plate . He’s not garunteed to run in the Summer Cup, because as I have said before he has always been a bit suspect over 2000m in my opinion. The Charity Mile might be an option but with the benchmark clause of 52kg for a 106 merit rating he will be carrying a lot of weight off a 128 merit rating (63kg), so we might by pass that. But the main mission is the King’s Plate and anything else is a bonus.”
De Kock would love to send Dave The King to Dubai and Hong Kong, but he said the problem was he did not think he would get there timeously. There is not only the consideration of equine export flights being put together but also the consideration of “no work at all for 16 days”.
He elaborated, “You are in a lockdown situation which will stick you back completely. You can’t just get off a plane and run. You have to give yourself time to regroup on the work you’ve lost out on, so it’s just not straight forward.”
De Kock’s other two Gr 1 winners from last season were Gimme A Nother and Humdinger.
Gimme A Nother is still doing her two months quarantine in Europe before being flown to America.
Humdinger was retired and was purchased by Drakenstein Stud.
De Kock’s three-year-old Wilgerbosdrift and Mauritzfontein Stud-bred Rafeef colt Heather’s Boy had tongues wagging after an impressive debut win over 1450m last month. However, De Kock said he preferred the horse to do the talking from the number one box rather than the trainer doing it prematurely. He said there was no rush to put him in big races yet and the aim would be to build his confidence and he added, “If he wins then we can talk about him.”
