LOW FLYING CAPE FLYING CHAMPIONSHIP

Click above to watch JJ The Jet Plane’s last run in South Africa; The Mercury Sprint (Gr1) in July 2010
(Photo : Gold Circle - Footage : Tellytrack)

CAPE FLYING CHAMPIONSHIP (Grade 1)
Kenilworth, Turf, 1000m
21 January 2012

For as long as we can remember, the time-honoured Cape Flying Championship (Gr1) has been one of the better subscribed sprints in the land. That there are only six competitors for Saturday’s renewal would’ve been remarkable if it weren’t for the fact the line-up includes three current champions, the emerging rocket, What A Winter, the amazing filly Val Da Ra, and it marks the return of the globe-trotting international Group One hero, J J The Jet Plane. He hasn’t been seen on a South African course since July 2010, and that was at the end of an unbroken sequence of seven consecutive victories.

JJ of course, has a strong genetic connection with Summerhill and Hartford. His mother was a Stakes-winning daughter of the world record equalling broodmare sire, Northern Guest, our most famous resident, and she was bred here by Gordon Sigcau, brother to the reigning King of Pondoland, Mpondimbini Sigcau. The family traces to an old Hartford taproot, so this man’s prowess, up there with the best sprinters the country has known, is not surprising.

Equally unsurprising is the size of the field. Champions have always got something to prove when pitted together, but when at best, all the others are doing in the line-up is running for fourth place money, you may as well reserve your talents for other fish. Whatever the outcome though, the presence of these three champions guarantees purists one helluva contest.

For the record, Summerhill’s recent history in the event surpasses all-comers. In the course of the first decade of this millennium, graduates of these paddocks took the laurels three times (Nhlavini in 2005 and 2006, and Rebel King in 2009) while each of them were runners up in other years.

FINAL FIELD

#	Horse	Kg	MR	Dr	Jockey	Trainer
1	J J THE JET PLANE	60.0	122	3	B Fayde’Herbe	Lucky Houdalakis
2	WHAT A WINTER	60.0	117	6	K Neisius	Mike Bass
3	COPPER PARADE	60.0	108	4	G Hatt	Joey Ramsden
4	CAPTAIN’S SECRET	60.0	107	5	M Byleveld	Mike Bass
5	RABATTACHE	60.0	107	2	R Fourie	Glen Puller
6	VAL DE RA	57.5	111	1	A Forbes	Dennis Drier

2011 WORLD THOROUGHBRED RANKINGS

J J The Jet Plane (SAF)
(Photo : Hong Kong Jockey Club)

WORLD THOROUGHBRED RANKINGS

#	Rating	Horse	Country	YOF	Sex
1	136	FRANKEL	GB	2008	C
2	132	BLACK CAVIAR	AUS	2006	M
3	128	CIRRUS DES AIGLES	FR	2006	G
3	128	DANEDREAM	GER	2008	F
5	127	CANFORD CLIFFS	IRE	2007	C
5	127	REWILDING	GB	2007	C
7	126	DREAM AHEAD	USA	2008	C
7	126	EXCELEBRATION	IRE	2008	C
7	126	NATHANIEL	IRE	2008	C
7	126	SO YOU THINK	NZ	2006	H
11	125	TWICE OVER	GB	2005	H
11	125	WORKFORCE	GB	2007	C
14	124	DROSSELMEYER	USA	2007	C
14	124	GOLDIKOVA	IRE	2005	M
14	124	ST NICHOLAS ABBEY	IRE	2007	C
17	123	ACCLAMATION	USA	2006	H
17	123	AMERICAIN	USA	2005	H
17	123	ORFEVRE	JPN	2008	C
17	123	SEPOY	AUS	2008	C
17	123	STRONG SUIT	USA	2008	C
17	123	TIZWAY	USA	2005	H
23	122	AMBITIOUS DRAGON	NZ	2006	G
23	122	BEHKABAD	FR	2007	C
23	122	CALEB’S POSSE	USA	2008	C
23	122	CAPE BLANCO	IRE	2007	C
23	122	DICK TURPIN	IRE	2007	C
23	122	GAME ON DUDE	USA	2007	G
23	122	HAY LIST	AUS	2005	G
23	122	J J THE JET PLANE	SAF	2004	G
23	122	MEANDRE	FR	2008	C
23	122	PLANTEUR	IRE	2007	C
23	122	POUR MOI	IRE	2008	C
23	122	RELIABLE MAN	GB	2008	C
23	122	SNOW FAIRY	IRE	2007	F
23	122	TOSDEN JORDAN	JPN	2006	H
23	122	VICTOIRE PISA	JPN	2007	C

SOUTH AFRICAN RUNNERS

#	Rating	Horse	Country	YOF	Sex
23	122	J J THE JET PLANE	SAF	2004	G
80	119	BOLD SILVANO	SAF	2006	H
99	118	IGUGU	AUS	2007	F
99	118	VARIETY CLUB	SAF	2008	C
136	117	WHAT A WINTER	SAF	2007	C
136	117	MUSIR	AUS	2006	H
190	116	DANCEWITHTHEDEVIL	SAF	2006	M
190	116	PIERRE JOURDAN	SAF	2006	G
248	115	BIG CITY LIFE	SAF	2005	H
248	115	BRAVURA	SAF	2006	G
248	115	PAST MASTER	SAF	2006	H
248	115	SHEA SHEA	SAF	2007	C
248	115	THE APACHE	SAF	2007	C

International Federation of Horseracing Authorities

Click for detailed analysis…

MAIN AIM TO STAND STUD IN SOUTH AFRICA

Main Aim with Ryan Moore aboard
(Photo : The Guardian)

MAIN AIM (GB)
Oasis Dream (GB) - Orford Ness (GB)

Dual Group 3 winner Main Aim (GB) has finished quarantine in South Africa in preparation for beginning his stallion career at Highlands Farm this year.

The Juddmonte homebred won his first two starts at three and graduated from handicap company to become a leading sprinter-miler.

At four he won the John of Gaunt Stakes and split Fleeting Spirit and J J The Jet Plane when second in the July Cup, and in the following season he landed his second John of Gaunt and finished placed in the Duke of York Stakes, Celebration Mile and Challenge Stakes.

Main Aim is out of the Group 3-winning Selkirk mare Orford Ness, making him a half-brother to stakes-winners Home Affairs and Weightless. He is the second son of Oasis Dream to stand in South Africa, after Italian Group 1 scorer Querari, who covers at Maine Chance Farm.

Highlands Farm manager Mike Sharkey said: “I was looking for a classy sprinter-miler and Main Aim fitted the bill. The fact he is by Oasis Dream is a huge plus and we are looking forward to standing him. He has just left quarantine in Johannesburg and he should be with us by the end of the month.”

A fee for Main Aim, who will stand at Highlands alongside Antonius Pius, Great Britain and Windrush, will be announced at a later date.

Extract from Racing Post

ROYAL ASCOT DAY 1 : A GOOD DAY AT THE OFFICE...

Click above to watch Prohibit winning the King’s Stand Stakes (Gr1)
(Image : Perth Now - Footage : At The Races UK)

“…and especially for South African Sprinter, Sweet Sanette.”

Bill Oppenheim
Thoroughbred Daily NewsThe Coolmore legions had good reason to be satisfied with the results from Ascot’s opening day yesterday: they had bought into Canford Cliffs (Tagula) at the end of last year, which looked a pretty smart move after he stopped the 6-year-old wonder mare Goldikova (Anabaa) from notching her 14th Group 1/Grade I win in the meet’s opening race - the G1 Queen Anne Stakes - run over Ascot’s straight mile. Then Frankel, by Coolmore’s world number one, Galileo, scraped home in the one mile G1 St James’s Palace Stakes, run on the round course, while Coolmore’s Zoffany, by the Juddmonte stallion Dansili, upgraded his stallion prospects by running a bang-up second. Then, to finish off the day, their investment in a second Juddmonte stallion paid off when Power (Oasis Dream) finished strongly to give Aidan O’Brien his sixth win in the G2 Coventry Stakes. All in all, a pretty satisfactory opening day; though the weight of expectation which Frankel carried yesterday is transferred today to Coolmore’s So You Think (High Chaparral), as short as 2-5 last night to win today’s G1 Prince of Wales’s Stakes.

The G1 King’s Stand Stakes over 5 furlongs was nearly poached by the Highlands-bred South African filly Sweet Sanette (Jallad) despite her near scratching after an accident in the preliminaries. She led the best sprinters around a merry dance for every yard except the final twenty five, and you’d have to say this was some compliment to the quality of sprinters in this country.

Formerly owned by Wally Brits and trained by Roy Magner, Sweet Sanette was a very good, but by no means great, sprinter before she left South Africa for Hong Kong, and one can’t help wondering what J J The Jet Plane would have done to this field which included Australia’s second best sprinter, Star Witness.

Even Sweet Sanette’s most ardent supporters would not suggest she was in JJ’s league, and while JJ remains the highest rated male sprinter in the world right now, he can only aspire to the No.1 spot if he can cross swords with the current Australian star, Black Caviar.

It was also a good day for Prince Khalid Abdullah’s Juddmonte operation. Frankel may only have scraped home in the St James’s Palace Stakes, but his record now reads seven wins from seven starts, and his master trainer - the newly knighted (and slightly embarrassed, as usual) Sir Henry Cecil - will now go off and think about what he wants to ask his colt to do next. Henry mentioned the G1 Juddmonte International (sponsored by the owner) over an extended 10 furlongs at York, even as the wise guys were again trying to talk him into shortening him up to six furlongs. There’s a reason he’s been champion trainer nine times, and it’s not because he listens to the riders in the stands. Besides the fact a runner by their own stallion, Dansili, gave Frankel an almighty scare, Juddmonte could also be pleased that their stallion Oasis Dream - arguably the number two sire in Europe now behind only Galileo - had two winners on opening day: Prohibit in the G1 King’s Stand Stakes over five furlongs; and Power in the G2 Coventry, always the first really important 2-year-old race of the year.

The racing, as always, was fiercely competitive, and there were a few noteworthy performances in defeat - none more so than Goldikova’s loss to Canford Cliffs in the Queen Anne Stakes. Like Zenyatta, she went down fighting, and has now won 16 races, with four seconds and two thirds in her 23 career starts - only once unplaced, in a bog in the G1 Prix d’Ispahan, in her first start of 2009. Prince Khalid’s Cityscape, now a 5-year-old and by Selkirk, ran a lifetime best, finishing third, less than two lengths behind Goldikova; and Godolphin’s 6-year-old Rio de la Plata (Rahy) also ran a good race, in fourth.

Extract from Thoroughbred Daily News

THE SOUTH AFRICAN CONNECTION : DWC AND ALL THAT

Click above to watch Rocket Man winning the Golden Shaheen (Gr1)
(Footage : Dubai Racing)

DUBAI WORLD CUP
26 March 2011

The Dubai World Cup meeting featured two sprints, one on grass, the other on tapeta. Having shown his preference for the turf, (or rather, his dislike of the tapeta), it was Lucky Houdalakis’ decision to keep J J The Jet Plane on his best surface in the Al Quoz Sprint (Gr2) and he was vindicated when our local ace came sprinting out of the mist after twice being interfered with, to get over the line in the last stride of the 1000m trip, now arguably too short for him.

His ranking as the best male sprinter in the world remains intact, and was not eclipsed by Rocket Man’s gutsy win in the Golden Shaheen (Gr1) a few races later. The latter is a man who thoroughly deserved his victory, as he’d been narrowly denied last year in the same event, as well as by J J The Jet Plane in the Hong Kong Sprint (Gr1) a few months ago. Rocket Man may be Australian-bred, but he’s South African owned, South African-trained, and he was South African-ridden on Saturday evening, the protagonists being respectively one of the country’s biggest owners, Fred Crabbia, the veteran horseman, Patrick Shaw, and one of our most celebrated riders, Felix Coetzee.

As gallant as gallant gets, it was very nearly South Africa’s turn to grab the cash in the $5million Dubai Duty Free (Gr1) yet again, (no country has won it more often), when River Jetez claimed the lead 300m out, and just as she appeared to have the race at her mercy, the Luca Cumani-conditioned Presvis finally got his act together, (having had a couple of shots at the event before), for a half length victory. Now in her seventh year, River Jetez’s astonishing effort was as fine an advert for the class and durability of South African gallopers as any, and the Amms and Marsh Shirtliff can take some solace from the knowledge that she ran her guts out for “president and country”.