Gr3 Man O' War Sprint winner - Deliver The Power
Deliver The Power appeared to stand head-and-shoulders above his six rivals in the Man O’War Sprint for three-year-olds over 1100m and promptly recorded his fifth win from as many starts since he was gelded last July, MATTHEW LIPS
Dominic Zaki’s gelding had run out the very easy winner of an all-ages Gr3 handicap over 1000m in February and went off as the prohibitive 1-to-4 favourite here. He had plenty in hand over his rivals on merit ratings and only Legal Action (7/1) was given half a chance by the market of toppling Deliver The Power. The favourite was amongst the back-markers early as Dazzling Moon set a fast pace ahead of her fellow filly Mary Stuart, with the stable companions Legal Action and Dawn Light next in line, but Weichong Marwing took Deliver The Power to the far side of the course and soon started to move into contention.
Dazzling Moon was under pressure and fading more than 200m out and Deliver The Power soon had the upper hand and the race in safekeeping. He probably had a bit more up his sleeve as he won by 1.25 lengths from Americano, who ran on stoutly at the death and who put up the performance of his life facing the winner on 9 kgs worse terms than would have been the case in a handicap. Mary Stuart gamely stayed on to finish a neck further away in third, with Right Beauty doing his best work late in fourth, but Legal Action didn’t find much inside the final furlong and was somewhat disappointing.
A tilt at the Gr1 Computaform Sprint on April 28th beckons for Deliver The Power, and while that will represent a much stiffer test than he faced on Saturday there is little doubt that he is a smart sprinter. He may even improve on this effort, as in Dominic Zaki’s words Deliver The Power had a minor setback after ”knocking himself quite badly a couple of weeks ago.” It is very debatable whether he’d have any real hope of beating Val De Ra at WFA should the flying mare attempt to win the Computaform Sprint for a second successive year, and it is possible according to his trainer that Deliver The Power needs more than 1000m now to be at his absolute best, but the country’s richest minimum distance race is surely worth a try.
A son of Toreador, Deliver The Power is the first foal of the unraced Tara’s Halls mare Tara’s Destiny. Bred at Hemel’n Aarde Stud and bought for R55 000 at the 2010 National Two Year Old Sale, he has won seven times from only nine appearances for R521 450 in stakes.
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