|
Final Field - The Grade 1 R500 000 Mercury Sprint
| Share |
THE MERCURY SPRINT Grade 1 - R550 000 FINAL FIELD
| 1 | 12 | EXCLAIM'N'EXCLUDE | 60.0 | 109 | A Marcus | Charles Laird |
| 2 | 11 | CAPTAIN'S SECRET | 60.0 | 108 | A Domeyer | Mike Bass |
| 3 | 4 | RABATTACHE | 60.0 | 108 | D Daniels | Glen Puller |
| 4 | 13 | RUSHING WIND | 60.0 | 107 B | M Yeni | Mike Bass |
| 5 | 6 | AUGUST RUSH | 60.0 | 106 | B Fayd'Herbe | Neil Bruss |
| 6 | 1 | GAULTIER | 60.0 | 106 | R Fradd | Mike Bass |
| 7 | 2 | JINZO | 60.0 | 106 | I Sturgeon | Herman Brown |
| 8 | 8 | BUSH PIRATE | 60.0 | 103 B | R Danielson | Joey Ramsden |
| 9 | 5 | NEVER FOREVER | 60.0 | 93 B | S Randolph | Dennis Drier |
| 10 | 7 | SPLASH GOLD | 59.5 | 113 | K Neisius | Dean Kannemey |
| 11 | 10 | MAGICO | 59.5 | 112 BT | F Coetzee | Paul Peter |
| 12 | 9 | COPPER PARADE | 59.5 | 106 B | R Fourie | Joey Ramsden |
| 13 | 3 | COVENANT | 57.0 | 107 | K Shea | Mike Bass |
The R550 000 Grade 1 Mercury Sprint at Clairwood on Saturday is set to provide a thrilling finish and most trainers believe their charges had a good chance of winning. The race to be run over 1200 m is the last major sprint race of the current season that ends on July 31 and was last year won by international star JJ The Jet Plane.
The three-year-old Dupont colt Magico, winner of six races, is seen more as a 1 000m specialist but trainer Paul Peter believes he will stay the 1 200m trip well.
“He is doing very well and his preparation has gone perfectly. I am very confident he will run a big race and will go very close.
“I am sure he will get the 1 200m trip. He will sit off the pace and will be doing his best work in the finish. The only time we tried him over 1 200m it was wet and the race had been postponed for a week and he might have just gone over.“He is an easy horse to train and I have a good jockey in Felix Coetzee. The two dangers in the race are the filly Covenant and Splash Gold.” Magico was due to face the Investec Cape Flying Championship winner What A Winter in that warm-up race but the Mike Bass-trained colt has since returned to Cape Town after injury put a premature end to his season.
Trainer Neil Bruss said his four-year-old Var gelding August Rush was doing well but he was in two minds whether the horse was “in that league”.“He is only a four-time winner and has not won a race for a year but being a weight-for-age race will help him.“He’s as well as he can be and if he can repeat his run in the Golden Horse Casino Sprint where he ran less than a length to Shea Shea, then he will have a chance.” The gelding beat Splash Gold in an MR100 race in the Cape in February and Bruss said he believed his gelding was better than Splash Gold. The Dean Kannemeyer-trained Splash Gold was the recent winner of the Post Merchants run at Greyville.
There are three or four runners that could win the Mercury Sprint and the Australian import Exclaim’N’Exclude is one of them according to his trainer Charles Laird. The four-year-old has won six of his 16 starts with seven other places and he has been prepared for this race.
“We skipped the Golden Horse Casino Sprint with him because he had a big weight. He picked up six pounds going into that race so we decided to pass it by and take our chances in the Mercury Sprint.“He is very fit and working well but it is a competitive field. There are three or four that could win it and he is one of them.”
The ever consistent Never Forever will have his supporters while course specialist Exclaim’N’Exclude will sport the silks of the country’s leading owners, Markus and Ingrid Jooste for the Charles Laird stable.
Mike Bass has reported his four runners in fine fettle and ready to contest what could be a close finish. Hopes of a win for the Bass stable will rest with the smart three-year-old filly Covenant, winner of the Sceptre Stakes and Klawervlei Majorca Stakes during the Cape summer. She ran third to Val De Ra in the Sa Fillies Sprint at Scottsville is “in with a shout” if one considers her run to Val De Ra. “She won a Grade 1 – the Majorca Stakes – over a mile in the Cape but I think she is a better sprinter than a miler and will run well on Saturday. If Val De Ra was in the race she would be a hot pot favourite so you have got to give Covenant a lot of respect.”
Of the older horses, Captain’s Secret finished close-up in the Post Merchants while August Rush was runner-up to Shea Shea in the Golden Horse Casino Sprint.
The top Cape trainer feels all four have a chance of making the frame and in what he says is not the strongest field without the likes of Val De Ra, Shea Shea and his own top sprinter, What A Winter, in the field.
Captain’s Secret, the four-year-old Captain Al gelding enjoys Clairwood where he ran a close second to Exclaim’N’Exclude in a pinnacle stakes race in his penultimate outing. “I think he will run the same sort of race but I am not sure that he is an out and out sprinter as he is effective up to 1 400m or a mile. He will be kicking on in the finish and could run into the placings.”
Rushing Wind, a five-year-old Windrush gelding is now waiting for a rider with Muzi Yeni having been stood down from his Vodacom Durban July Day injury. “I don’t know yet who I will get to ride him but he has done well in weight-for-age races in the past. He usually comes with a late rattle and if the pace is on he will be in with a shout and could surprise.”
The six-year-old Jallad gelding Gaultier should run another gutsy race although Mike is a little concerned about his inside draw at one. “Physically he has blossomed here in Durban and he enjoys the Clairwood track. He will run well and could trouble the fancied runners. The three-year-olds Splash Gold, Magico and Copper Parade are the ones to beat but they have a tough task and they won’t have everything their own way.”
| 
