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Bits & Pieces
THEY SAID IT
“Jumps racing, all due respect to Sheikh Mohammed, is not about millionaires. It’s grass roots people who will breed one cheap, buy one cheap that is going nowhere on the flat. They’re horse lovers, pure and simple,” said jumps and flat trainer Robbie Laing at the weekend in response to the industry’s latest major talking point, Racing Victoria Limited’s decision, announced on Friday, to end jumps racing next year.
Bits & Pieces is a big jumps racing fan, is disappointed by the decision and will leave comment at that, except for pointing out the following …
The headline news in English racing at the weekend was the win of Denman in the Hennessy Gold Cup Chase, carrying 11st 12lb (75.3kg) over 21 tall, unyielding fences and the odd distance of three miles 2 ½ furlongs (about 5300 metres) at Newbury – no not Australia’s Denman, a nice Lonhro three-year-old sprinter-miler, and a colt, but a nine-year-old gelding by Presenting (GB) from Polly Puttens (GB), by Pollerton (GB).
We told you last week about the popularity in the UK of Denman’s stablemate Kauto Star (http://thethoroughbred.com.au/fullstory/20091123_BitsPieces), who won the Betfair Chase (4800m) at Haydock, so in telling you about Denman this week we point out that the race English punters are talking about is the Cheltenham Gold Cup (about 5300 metres) on March 19 at the famous jumps festival. That’s still 16 weeks away – almost a Melbourne Cup lead in.
At this stage, British bookies have Kauto Star (B g 2000, Village Star (FR)-Kauto Relka (FR), by Port Etienne (FR)), winner of 19 of 32 jumps starts, just shading Denman (14 from 18) as favourite around the 2/1 mark, and punters are already asking which warrior Paul Nicholls’ stable jockey Ruby Walsh will choose – no one seems to be questioning the fact that on Saturday, in a 19-horse Hennessy, five were pulled up, one lost its rider and one fell.
Head-to-head in the Gold Cup Kauto Star and Denman are 1-1. The loser ran second each time.
“For a lightly-raced horse, he’s certainly going the right way. It was a pretty good win. He showed he can stay well, which is a good sign,” said trainer Bart Cummings of the four-year-old Star Ripper ($4.20), winner of the Sharp Handicap (2400m) at Randwick’s Kensington track on Saturday.
It was the third win on end for the now gelded son of Encosta De Lago out of Cummings’ 1997 Cox Plate winner Dane Ripper (by Danehill (USA), who was 0-8 pre-operation.
Whether the win was the sign of another contender as the Cups King aims to win his 13th Melbourne Cup in its 150th running next year – or merely a pointer to Christmas staying events – is a little early to say, but it at least suggests that Cummings will push Star Ripper in the Cup direction, along with his 3YO G1 winners Faint Perfume (Oaks) and So You Think (Cox Plate).
WE SAW IT
Vodka has been a favourite in Japan for some time, and that country’s mare of that name won the Japan Cup (Turf, 2400m) in Tokyo yesterday. Vodka (B m 2004, Tanino Gimlet (JPN)-Tanino Sister (JPN), by Rousillon (USA)) won her seventh Group 1 by a lip, with a decision on the photo finish taking much longer than the race itself. Vodka has earned 1.3 billion yen, which is still impressive when converted to roughly $A12.6 million. Vodka was the 4/1 second favourite yesterday behind Britain’s Conduit, fourth at 9/4 after winning his second Breeders’ Cup (Turf) in the US this month.
The Darley double goes to … no, not trainer Peter Snowden and jockey Kerrin McEvoy in Sydney, but to the Melbourne support crew headed by Paul Snowden (Peter’s son) and Mark Zahra. Sheikh Mohammed’s southern stable had two runners at Moonee Valley on Saturday for two winners – Screen ($6) and Posadas ($3.30f). Screen (Br f 3 Lonhro-Thespian, by Zeditave) is a promising “two from three”; Posadas (B g 7, Commands-Navidad, by Christmas Tree) is a consistent 12 wins, 14 placings from 40 starts.
Ortensia (B m 4, Testa Rossa-Aerate’s Pick, by Picnicker) missed out on an invitation to the Group 1 Cathay Pacific International Sprint (1200m) in Hong Kong next month, but she gave trainer Tony Noonan every reason to smile with a storming win in the G2 $500,000 Winterbottom Stakes (1200m) at Ascot in Perth on Saturday. If the trainer keeps her to races under a mile, he could even get a Group 1 smile from the mare, whose win pushed Noonan’s name right under the noses of local owners as he looks to open a satellite stable in Perth.
Sniper’s Bullet, winner of the Group 1 Railway Stakes (1600m) at Ascot the weekend before last, will have NSW trainer Tracey Bartley’s rider of (second) choice in the Group 1 Kingston Town Classic (1800m) this weekend after Damien Oliver had his one-month suspension cut to a severe reprimand on appeal today. Traces of the drug ephedrine were found in Oliver’s urine, but he fought the stewards’ holiday, saying that the “positive” came from a herbal supplement he had taken, without a problem, for years. First-choice rider and Railway winner Nash Rawiller was unavailable because he is required by the Gai Waterhouse stable in Sydney, and Bartley had Rawiller’s brother Brad on standby if Oliver lost his appeal. Ollie, now, is also free to ride Apache Cat in Hong Kong next month.
WE’LL WATCH IT
How Apache Cat (trained at Cranbourne by Greg Eurell) and All Silent (Randwick, Grahame Begg) settle in alongside Australia’s horse of the year Scenic Blast at Sha Tin in Hong Kong this week in preparation for the International Sprint on December 13 will be key to their chances in the $HK12 million (about $A1.8 million) race – Scenic Blast has been there since October 17, but the other two travel today and tomorrow. Apache Cat handled the trip well when third last year, but All Silent was sent back to Sydney without racing as a younger horse when trained in Hong Kong by John Size.
Size, by the way, had a treble at Sha Tin yesterday to jump up to 10 wins and on to the heels of the leading pack after a slow start to the season that is 10 weeks old.
Another Australian trainer, Cliff Brown, had a big couple of days at Kranji in Singapore, with a treble on Friday and a double on Saturday. He has 31 wins for the (calendar year) season – the trainers’ premiership is New Zealander Laurie Laxon’s again – he has 90 wins, 36 ahead of the next best, Australians Don Baertshiger and Michael Freedman. With five meetings to go Laxon’s stable rider Saimee Jumaat (99 wins) will be top jockey, but he won’t get his century because he has been suspended for three months for racking up too many demerit points this year. Closest to him on the jockeys’ premiership table is Australian John Powell (65).