MIKE DE KOCK'S TOPKAPI TROPHY TURKEY SHOOT

Click above to watch Musir winning the Topkapi Trophy (Gr2)
(Photo : Racing Post - Footage : TJK TV)

TOPKAPI TROPHY (Gr2)
Veliefendi, Turf, 1600m
4 September 2011

Mike de Kock is nothing if he is not the most adventurous trainer in the world. The title of best trainer is probably also his, though without an official world championship, that will always be a matter of argument. Getting back to his adventurous ways, at Veliefendi racecourse in Istanbul on Sunday, he saddled up Sheikh Mohammed bin Khalifah Al Maktoum’s Musir for the Topkapi Trophy (Gr2), where the winners prize was a hefty £230,000. The prize money on offer at Turkey’s most prestigious international meeting, has always attracted a healthy entry of horses from across the continents, and Sunday was no exception. You’d have thought then that the outcome might’ve been a close-run thing, but the son of Redoute’s Choice made short work of the opposition, rewarding the enterprise of his conditioner with the kind of money that would’ve taken care of a lot of his owner’s out-of-season English bills.