Jan Van Goyen runs in the Gr 2 Betway Dingaans on Saturday and is one of the horses who can boost the status of the current three-year-old crop (JC Photos)
Between August and October every season the public and pundits tend to get carried away by three-year-old success, but reality often starts setting in during November.
This season was no exception with three-year-olds getting accolades after Tin Pan Alley had beaten older horses in the Gr 2 Betway Jo’Burg Spring Challenge over 1450m and the runner up Atticus Finch then franked the form by running away with the Gr 2 Allied Steelrode-Onamission Charity Mile.
In Cape Town the three-year-olds have generally been facing each other and had seemed impressive, which is usually the way viewers see it every year.
One of the most impressive horses was the Candice Bass-trained All The Rage, who had cruised up to Gr 1 winner Good For You in a 1250m Progress Plate at Hollywoodbets Durbanville before finding the necessary extra to win by 0,30 lengths, despite giving the latter 1kg if rider overweight is included.
Good For You then went on to finish a two length second in the Gr 3 Cape Classic over 1400 to Vapour Trail, but he was giving the latter 4kg, so performed better than him.
On Saturday Good For You came out and won the Gr 2 Race Coast Cape Punters Cup over 1600m despite giving the rest of the field 2kg.
However, what put a bit of a dampener on the form was that he beat the arguably unlucky runner up Randolph Hearst by only a shorthead giving him 2kg, whereas he had beaten him by 0,5 lengths in the Cape Classic when giving him 4kg.
Furthermore, All The Rage had earlier been beaten in the Sophomore Sprint over 1200m and although he was giving the winner Green Gateway 2kg he was beaten by a comfortable 1,20 lengths.
The Cape three-year-old form has in fact been muddled like this all season with the swapping of winners and placings and no standout performers to date.
There could still be horses who will improve and possibly stand out with one of them being the ruling Hollywoodbets Cape Guineas favourite Gimmie Rules. He might have only won a B Stakes event last time, but he was clearly still green and had to come around horses from the back on the Hollywoodbets Kenilworth Winter Course in the 1400m event and yet won effortlessly.
Horses that ran in the Punters Cup could still improve with one example being Happy Verse, who had no sort of luck being caught wide without cover in the running and then being squeezed out late.
However, one of the country’s guru racing analysts, Karel Miedema, has not given any three-year-olds high ratings this season.
He usually turns out to be right and an example is that he gave Cousin Casey an AR (Ability Rating) of 112 for his Punters Cup victory in 2022. That turned out to be a very good three-year-old crop, headed by the top class Charles Dickens.
The following season Miedema gave Hhluhluwe a 94 rating for his Punters Cup win and that also turned out to be accurate as Hluhluwe proved to be a horse who was unable to quite match the best.
Last season he gave One Stripe 101 for his Punters Cup victory and it turned out to be a good season for three-year-olds. One Stripe went on to win the Hollywoodbets Cape Guineas and was a rare three-year-old winner of the L’Ormarins King’s Plate, although it should be noted Miedema only gave One Stripe a 103 for his Guineas win and 109 for his LKP win, with LKP runner up Montien getting a higher score of 110. With all due respect One Stripe’s overseas performances to date have not set him apart as a great of the SA turf, so Miedema looks to have once again been accurate.
Miedema has awarded Good For You a 96 for his Punters Cup win, which is below the 100 he gave him for his Cape Classic win.
He only gave Tin Pan Alley a 95 for his Spring Challenge win and in fact the highest he has given a three-year-old all season isa 102 to African Pride for a win at the Vaal over 1000m.
So it is not looking to be a vintage three-year-old season.
Will the like of Jan Van Goyen and Gimme Rules be able to change that?
Jan van Goyen and Tin Pan Alley face off in the Gr 2 Betway Dingaans on Saturday at Turffontein and other promising horses involved in the race are Chronicle King, Trust and Shadowfax. It might be the race that provides the springboard for the three-year-old crop to be reckoned with or it might be the race that further dampens their overall profile.
