Jonsson Workwear Cape Derby (Group 1)

POMP And Power, only fifth in the Queen’s Plate, showed every sign of relishing the extra two furlongs, when giving both Justin Snaith and Richard Fourie their fourth Cape Derby victories at Kenilworth last Saturday.

The gelding, bought for only R250,00 (€14,535) at the 2020 National Yearling Sale, is the fourth Group 1 winner sired by the Mike de Kock-trained and much-travelled Vercingetorix (by Silvano) who stands at Maine Chance Farms. Andreas Jacobs’ stud also were responsible for breeding Pomp And Power.

Double Superlative, successful in the Cape Guineas and stable companion of the winner, started marginally odds-on in the colours of Nic Jonsson (whose Jonsson Workwear sponsored the Derby) but he failed to pick up and could manage only third place.

He ran as if his hard-fought fourth in the Met might just have left its mark but the fact is that this is a particularly tough race for favourites and there hasn’t been a winning one for nine years.

Certainly Craig Zackey had no excuses for second-placed Universal, saying: “I got to the front for free, but unfortunately he found one too good for him.”

Pomp And Power is now a 14/1 shot with the sponsors for the Hollywoodbets Durban July. Thanks to the new sponsors, prize money for South Africa’s most famous race has been upped to R5 million (€290,698).

In 2019 it was R4.5 million but Covid brought it crashing down to a mere R1.5 million in 2020. Last year it was R2 million.

Snaith, now 47, has trained just over 3,000 winners in the 20 years that he has held a licence and, worryingly for his rivals, he reckons he has found a new way of improving his horses!

He revealed this after taking the two-mile Kenilworth Cup with the Dynasty four-year-old Salvator Mundi.

“I have tried to start getting a little bit more scientific and I worked out exactly how many minutes a horse would have to keep his heart rate elevated,’ he explained.

“Going into this particular race I decided to train a little bit differently in order to get the horse’s heart rate elevated to that certain height, and then to try to maintain it for as long as possible.

“That gives you that little extra bit of stamina.”

Cape Yearling Sale

Greg Bortz, one of the three joint owners of Pomp And Power, was back at Kenilworth on Sunday to buy the two top lots at Bloodstock South Africa’s Cape Yearling Sale.

He went to R1 million (€58,140) for a Vercingetorix colt from Millstream Farm and then outbid all opposition to get Varsfontein Stud’s Gimmethegreenlight colt for the same price.

The figures were fantastic with the average up 86% at R155,655 and turnover up 91%.Four weeks ago the big CTS Yearling Sale recorded a 16% increase in turnover to R43.3 million (€2.52 million) and the average rose 7% to R261,024.

However, satisfactory as this may appear, the results were but a shadow of this sales’ heady days at the Cape Town Convention Centre when buyers came from all over the world.

Five years ago the flagship sale posted an aggregate of R155 million and an average of almost R700,000!

BLOB One-time Rosewell House patron Hassen Adams, who has been battling cancer and uncomplainingly for years, went to R4.75 million (€276,163) at Kenilworth on Saturday, to buy out his partners in Got The Greenlight.

The five-time Group 1 winner is expected to stand at Adams’ Nadeson Park Stud.