Pocket Power in his heyday
Trainer Dean Kannemeyer has enjoyed a fairytale start to his KZN Champions Season and is bullish about lifting the Cape Winter Triple Crown with the Silvano colt, Power King, on Saturday.
He said it was humbling to be walking in the ‘footsteps of a giant of the turf’ like Pocket Power.
“Power King has the blood and relaxes in his races like a true professional. I am just mindful about the winter rains turning the underfoot conditions into a mudbath. He is a very good mover and won’t relish that. But good horses tend to overcome obstacles,” he said.
Bred by Maine Chance Farms, Power King is by Silvano out of the Northern Guest mare, Northern Gale. There is ample stamina on the dam’s side.
Power King has won 4 of his 9 starts and was right on the fringes in the classics. He was bowled right out of the running in the Derby.
“He showed in the classics that he has plenty of ability. The big league experiences stood him in good stead and we are now reaping the rewards of bringing him along slowly,”
He cost R380 000 on the National Yearling Sale and Dean said that he and Jehan Malherbe had selected Power King for leading owner, Khaya Stables.
“At the sales, he was a plain colt but had plenty of scope, moved well and had everything in all the right places.”
“The wonderful characteristic of the Silvano progeny is that they also just get better with age and Power King is living proof of that. We earmarked him early for this series and he will be even better as a 4yo. He will thus get his chance for a tilt at Champions Season next year,” he said.
The brilliant Winter Solstice fell at the final hurdle of the Cape Triple Crown
Two Greats
Two past South African Horses of The Year spring to mind when lovers of the sport of kings discuss this prestigious homebaked series.
We have to go back ten years to 2004 when Joey Ramsden’s brilliant Winter Solstice, who was our SA Horse Of The Year in the 2004/2005 season, beat Eric Sands’ Sporting Treble in the first two legs, before being dethroned by his stablemate, the Badger Land gelding Set To Music, to fall at the final hurdle.
On that miserable Cape Saturday in June, Glen Hatt on Winter Solstice looked all over a winner, but had to watch in horror in the final strides as Gerrit Schlechter drove the fast finishing Set To Music up to narrowly collar his stablemate in the Gr3 Winter Derby.
Sporting Treble, in the famous Grande Jete silks, ran third, just ahead of subsequent July winner Dunford! Winter Solstice went on to glory.He won the Queen’s Plate in 2005 and January 2006, amongst other superb Gr1 victories.
But Mike Bass’ Pocket Power remains the only horse in modern times to win the Cape Winter Series Triple Crown.
The remarkable champion, who was SA Horse Of The Year in all of the 2006/7 2007/8 and 2008/9 seasons, won the Winter Series in 2006.
Another Ramsden horse was involved in this little drama, when Silver Mist was runner up to the champion in the first two legs, and was to go on and be pipped by the proverbial nostril in the L’Ormarin’s Queen’s Plate run at the end of December of that year. The Queen’s Plate was run in January 2006 and December 2006.
