Fashion Filly!Beach Beauty is Glance's choice to win the Met
Nothing quite rivals the J&B Met for the pure racing and social experience. The brand is so strong in fact, that despite the inevitable tinkering and tweaking, it remains a winner. 2012 could be a momentous year in its 35 year history though, with progress threatening to change the face of the show in the near future. A real pity.
The usual hype and excitement in the build-up to Saturday’s J&B Met carries on oblivious to the ever lengthening dark shadows of pending proposed dramatic changes to liquor legislation and a new broom in the local racing cupboard. Phumelela are likely to be calling the shots by the time the 2013 Met comes around – and this may not be a bad thing judging on their promotion and building of the Sansui Summer Cup as one example. They definitely appear to have the personnel and expertise. The Liquor Law changes being considered by government are apparently alcohol limitations on time, location and content, in relation to advertising as well as exploring the possibility of raising the age of consumption and trade of alcohol from 18 years to 21 years. They are also looking at enhancing current measures to deal with public drinking and drunk driving. This will directly and indirectly effect the way the Met is presented.
The dream has been thirty five long years in the creation – it seems unbelievable that J&B have been associated with this great race since 1978 and sometimes it feels that we are just never going to wake up from our fantasy filled slumber.
1978 is not just an old number, but it is an interesting exercise to look at a few faded polaroids and listen to an old song or two, to put into perspective that it is bloody close to a lifetime and universe away. A large sector of the generation in between then and now have come and gone. We wear our hair differently, we dance differently, we communicate differently. We dress differently. Let me not even start with the Goodwood Drive-In theatre, the Doll’s House in Mouille Point or the bug-houses like the Capri and the Roxy that played non-stop movies all day long for 23 cents that included a Granita juice. My dad’s ‘Automatique’ Peugeot was ‘more than a sugar coated pill’ and I looked like John Lennon on glue in my large blue Identity book. Hell, I am old.
It was a mixed up year. The ‘Groot Krokodil’ PW Botha succeeded the tyrannical BJ Vorster as the 9th Prime Minister of South Africa. They are both long dead and buried. A bomb exploded outside the offices of the Bantu Affairs building in Port Elizabeth, sadly killing one civilian and injuring many others. Bantu Affairs as a government department is long closed. The South African Defence Force attacked several Swapo bases in Angola during Operation Bruilof. The SADF’s infamous 32 Battalion moved into southern Angola to flush out Swapo loyalists during Operation Seiljag. The defence force has undergone a name and wholesale image change since and are probably closer than ever to privatisation and a takeover by the Fidelity Guards. South Africa’s Atomic Energy Corporation built our first nuclear weapon device. And on a happier note, 2007 World Cup winning Springbok rugby captain John Smit was born.
If music is your tonic, 1978 was a vintage year. The Sex Pistols performed their last live gig-thank goodness- but for more civil society , the Bee Gees were huge. Who was breathing then(other than PW Botha) that didn’t dance at least one Saturday night to Stayin’Alive? The subdued overdressed forerunner to Lady Gaga, Kate Bush, had a big hit with Wuthering Heights, while the female Rod Stewart, Bonny Tyler, sang the melancholy It’s A Heartache. An Australian –aren’t they just everywhere?- by the name of John Paul Young toned down his previous hit ‘I Hate The Music’ and sang the rather romantic ‘Love Is In The Air’, which when translated to Afrikaans became a sinister suggestive ballad that we’d never sing to a decent girl. We never had the pleasure of meeting a showgirl called Lola, but Barry Manilow made big money out of the timeless Copacabana, which we heard for the first time that year. So I have made my point.
Great horses are what make the Met. And probably the best ever – even better than latter day hero Pocket Power – won it that first year. The brilliant chestnut son of Oligarchy, Politician won his first Met that year – easing up by over three lengths. He was to go on and make history by winning it again the next year – under topweight once again and beating the brilliant Ralph Rixon-trained filly Festive Season. Politician’s trainer Syd Laird has moved on to the racecourse in the sky and winning jockey Bertie Hayden is a shadow of his former self. Whiling away his days struggling with ill health and largely forgotten by a game that he contributed so much to. But ‘Big Race Bert’ isn’t the only man in that position.
Pocket Power has broken Politician’s record having won the race multiple times and informed comparisons are inevitable. Racegoer’s David Thiselton will permit me to quote from an article he wrote in 2008: With the Met now virtually being a Weight For Age race, besides a once off 2kg penalty for Grade I winners, Pocket Power carried 58kg but ran at level weightfor-age conditions to five other horses and gave away only 2,5kg away to the bottom weight whilst Politician carried 58,5kg and gave plenty of weight away all around, including 15 half-kilos to second-placed Festive Season.
“Pocket Power is a very good horse but Politician was exceptional and I think he could have put Pocket Power on his back and carried him home,” said former Durban Turf Club handicapper, Colin Buckham. “With the new weight conditions,this year’s Met was a non-race. In Politician’s day there was never a Met where they only talked about second.” Top veteran jockey, Garth Puller, added, “In Politician’s day there were always three or four top horses that you had to beat but today those three or four are overseas. Pocket Power would have to go to Dubai before we knew how good he really is as the horses he’s beating here are basically handicappers.”
The race stake in 1978 was R50 000. It has gone up by R2 million in 35 years. While it should be R5 million, that’s really not too bad on paper and my research to determine the 1978 price of a bottle of J&B for a fun comparison hit a blank. The collateral in terms of the upkeep of feeding racehorses, training fees, the cost of a family home in a decent suburb and the price of a new car have been distorted over time. We sadly still have none of the foreign horses raiding and the international jockeys riding – which would give the race a refreshing new competitive angle.
The whisper is out that guest commentators David Raphael(who called the Laisserfaire Stakes last Saturday) and Craig Evans will be calling a race or two on the day, and I hope that this invite is extended to the local legends like Craig Peters and Bumpie Schoeman. The latter fell out of the Kimberley commentary box a few years ago, so is unlikely to enjoy scaling the dubious aged ceilings of the Kenilworth grandstand after a Klippie and coke or two. On the other hand, Eagle Eye Peters has guested in years gone by and Craig only spends ten minutes in the pre-race glancing at the colours to produce a polished performance.
Freelance media man Andrew Bon pulled a rabbit out of the hat with the coup coverage of the Cape Flying Championship duel on last Friday’s SABC evening news bulletin, but we are unlikely to see anything similar this weekend and will have to rely on Tellytrack to produce the goods to its captive market. The newspaper coverage of the Met has also gone badly backwards with only the odd arbitrary fashion or social related article finding its’ way into the general pages. My copy of the Argus on the Thursday prior to the 1975 running has a front page pic and article as well as extensive coverage within the rest of the paper, with every second advertisement utilising a horsey or racing theme to capitalise on the fever.
Enjoy a sizzling afternoon. Just ensure that your vehicle insurance is up to date. Don’t overindulge as we have learnt in horseracing that it is just not cricket – and you may just make a monkey of yourself in front of the wrong people- and batting your way out of that type of self-inflicted trap is not easy.
The least I can do is tip a straight-line quartet:
My J&B Met quartet: Beach Beauty / Tales Of Bravery / Run For It / Igugu
