A thrilling three cornered duel as One Cool Dude (pink cap) beats Serissa and Futura (nearest camera)
The connections of the Strike Smartly colt One Cool Dude may be ruing the fact that they didn’t pursue their options into the July. Kevin Shea rode a cracking race on the Duncan Howells’ trained galloper to win the R250 000 Gr3 Cup Trial at Clairwood on Saturday as Brett Crawford’s Futura had to settle for a disappointing third. But there were excuses.
The big interest in the 1800m race was the presence of the boom 3yo Futura, who ironically was the public focus July hopeful in an event that confers ‘preferential consideration’ for inclusion in the big race.
The debate around the merits or otherwise of the Brett Crawford colt will sadly probably overshadow an astute ride by Kevin Sea on a horse who has always lurked in the shadows, but has never quite cracked it big.
With the rate at which the July picture is evolving, One Cool Dude may just have gotten lucky with a few falling by the wayside and the manner of his sterling effort on Saturday.
Interestingly, on the evening that Futura had stepped into the limelight and won the Consolation 1900, One Cool Dude had snuck into fifth and just over 3 lengths behind Espumanti in the Gr2 Betting World 1900.
Kevin Shea is one of the best
On a festive Saturday afternoon, the pace ultimately played a huge factor in the outcome with a winning time that says it all.
The fact too that the under sufferance and largely formless Serissa managed to run second will also be used by the counter lobby as ammunition that it was no true run affair and that the form may be suspect.
But the bottom line is that Futura was given every chance to win by jockey Glen Hatt, who had him within spitting distance of the leaders all the way. The son of Dynasty was just not up to it on the afternoon, given the prevailing circumstances.
It will now no doubt be back to the drawing board as far as the balance of his season goes, but this defeat does definitely not mean discounting his career to any scrapheap!
With Serissa carting them along Hatt was two lengths off and moved the odds on Futura up menacingly at the 400m marker as they fanned out with chances to many.
On a day where the outside rail was the obvious place in the sun, Futura looked to be in a solid position for most of the home run.
But veteran Kevin Shea had other ideas and had been threatening to win something all day. He produced the year older One Cool Dude late into the equation and he ran on stoutly to win by a head in a time of 107.50 secs. (course record is 105.41 secs)
Futura’s defeat was a major Pick Six blow but the 12 to 1 One Cool Dude was a lot happier ending for many than Serissa would have been.
Duncan Howells trained the winner
Sean Tarry’s Black Minnaloushe gelding ran a cracker off joint bottomweight to take advantage of the pedestrian gallop and hold Futura for third, while Justin Snaith’s Readytogorightnow ran 1,40 lengths behind in fourth.
Mike Bass’s pair of Abercrombie and Night Trip were just off the money and disappointed when it counted again.
One Cool Dude was bred by part owner Ian Van Schalkwyk and is a son of Strike Smartly out of the thrice winning Western Winter mare, Misty River.
He has now won 6 races with 5 places from 14 starts and R518 525 in stakes. This was his biggest win to date.
He is a colt worth sticking with as he looks to have more to come. We forget that he was taken down to the Cape last summer for a crack at the Met. That plan may have come undone. But he can run.
Futura also looks far too talented not to be back for more.
