Cape Fillies Guineas

(Group 1)

JUST Sensual, backed from 16/1 to 11/2, got home almost in the final stride to thwart Safe Harbour in the Cape Fillies Guineas at Kenilworth last Saturday.

The runner-up had won the valuable Ready To Run sales race a fortnight earlier and she looked sure to follow up until Anton Marcus arrived with a wet sail on the Joey Ramsden runner. “I had my reservations about whether she was up to this,” related the former champion.

“But when she won last time I said to Derek Brugman (owner Markus Jooste’s racing manager) ‘I don’t know how good she is but potentially she could be anything.’ She was really thrown in at the deep end here but she certainly proved she can swim.”

The winner was officially rated a stone below the best in the race but Ramsden, winning this classic for the second time, seemed surprise that none of the tipsters shared his belief in the filly who has now won all except the first of four starts.

“I thought she was a big runner,” he insisted. “She is a very smart filly and she is going to get better and better. The only thing that worried me was her 12 draw.”

Just Sensual is by the 2003 Durban July scorer Dynasty out of champion two-year-old Consensual, whose grandam In Camera also won the Fillies Guineas. Just Sensual’s target now looks like being a clash with the older horses in the Majorca Stakes on Met day (January 28th).

The first two escaped all the rough-housing behind. The previously unbeaten Quick Brown Fox, backed all week from 8/1 down to 4/1 second favourite, was one of the principal sufferers and rider Greg Cheyne reported: “She got the legs taken out from under her.”

The fancied Final Judgement seemed to start the curved ball rolling when Piere Strydom’s saddle began slipping backwards shortly after the start. He then had to ease and switch outwards. Dawn Calling travelled all the way from Durban only to be hampered on three separate occasions, while Whose That Girl was among those that became unbalanced in all the scrimmaging.

But, in truth, the classic was overshadowed by the Green Point Stakes. This mile Group 2 saw Horse of the Year Legal Eagle having to pull out all the stops to hold four-year-old Marinaresco, who won the Champions Cup after going so close in the Durban July, while Triple Crown hero Abashiri was also in the line-up.

Marcus, who rode this winner too, said: “I was a bit concerned when I had to go for my horse quite early and in the last half-furlong I thought Marinaresco was going to go past me. It’s a testament to my horse’s courage that he stuck his head out but this race proves there is very little between the two of them.”

The runner-up had a dirty trach wash the previous week. “We had to treat him and go a bit easy,” said Candice Bass-Robinson. “Obviously that wasn’t ideal and they went quite hard which didn’t help either.” Somewhat understandably, she is looking forward to the rematch in the Queen’s Plate on January 7th and the Met three weeks later. The extra two furlongs of the latter should bring out the best in Marinaresco.

Abashiri, who ran on into fifth after trailing the field much of the way, will also be in the same two races. “I nearly took him out of this after the way he travelled from Jo’burg – he didn’t eat for two and a half days,” reported Mike Azzie, who will leave the horse in Cape Town in the care of one of his assistants for the next seven weeks.

Alice reappearance

CARRY On Alice, the top sprinting filly of last season, makes her reappearance in the Southern Cross Stakes at Kenilworth today.

“She will need the race,” warns champion trainer Sean Tarry. “We are hoping we can get away with it but there is still quite a bit to work with.” He is to keep the five-year-old in Cape Town for the Cape Flying Championship at the end of next month.

Niekerk suspended

Grant Van Niekerk has been suspended for a total of 21 days after being given three separate one-week interference bans at different meetings at the end of last month.

Jockeys in South African can choose the dates for minor offences but these three take a hefty chunk out of the Cape season and could hardly have come at a worse time for the Bass-Robinson stable jockey.