King of Kenilworth is Back

The King of Kenilworth is back on his throne.  Making nonsense of the belief held by some critics that he should abdicate and retire to a nice green pasture somewhere, Pocket Power showed that there is plenty of life left in his eight-year-old legs when he won the Ocean Basket Green Point Stakes over 1600m at Kenilworth on Saturday, writes Matthew Lips.

Fears that Pocket Power might be losing his touch gained ground when he was comfortably beaten by Tales Of Bravery in a pinnacle plate over 1500m at the same venue three weeks earlier and he now re-opposed that rival on 1 kg worse terms.  Punters couldn’t decide on an outright favourite for this WFA affair and eventually installed Pocket Power and Tales Of Bravery as co-market leaders at 2/1.  Unbeaten Bravura, returning from an injury and off the track since winning the Gr 1 Cape Derby in January, was an easy-to-back 33/10 third favourite in a line-up where every horse was at least a Gr 2 winner and every horse could boast a three-digit merit rating.

Things threatened to conspire against Pocket Power even before the race started when his stable companion and probable pacemaker Blue Tiger refused to enter the starting stalls and was scratched.  However, this last minute change of scenario made no difference as Grafton Street set off to set a reasonable gallop and opened up a lead of some four lengths from Tales Of Bravery and Pocket Power, with last year’s Green Point winner Fabiani in fourth.  Bravura was further back as Ivory Trail brought up the rear after (not for the first time in his life) making a complete hash of the start and losing many lengths.

Grafton Street was still clear turning into the short straight on the winter course, where Tales Of Bravery began to creep closer wider out as Pocket Power went to the inside rail for his run.  Grafton Street proved to be a tougher nut to crack than most would have expected and the 50/1 rank outsider still led well inside the final furlong.  Indeed, the only horse who could get to him was Pocket Power, who clearly had the pacesetter’s measure coming to the last 150m and who ran on well inside the closing stages to beat Grafton Street by 1.5 lengths.

Past Master was running on steadily from off the pace and finished a neck behind Grafton Street in third, with Tales Of Bravery having every chance before finishing three-quarters of a length further away in fourth.  Bravura never really got going and posed no threats before finishing sixth of the eight runners, nearly five lengths behind the winner.  He probably will improve on this and one certainly cannot become despondent about Joey Ramsden’s four-year-old on the basis of this first career defeat, but horses are not always the same after injury even if they have recovered one hundred percent physically and time will tell whether Bravura has the same fire in his belly as he once did.  He may well do, but we need to be a tiny little bit concerned.

It might be tempting to downplay the strength of this form, with Grafton Street being rated 13 pounds below Pocket Power and getting a whole lot closer than the merit ratings appeared to warrant, but we all know that Pocket Power is not given to winning by big distances to put it mildly, and indeed his 1.5 lengths margin of victory here almost amounts to a light year by his normal standards.   He showed plenty of zest throughout the race, staying closer to the action throughout than is usually the case.  His notorious “flat spot” could scarcely be detected and all in all this was the most enthusiastic Pocket Power that we have arguably seen in the whole of 2010.   When asked afterwards whether he thought all of Pocket Power’s ability was still there or whether he was running below his old self, jockey Bernard Fayd’herbe replied, “it’s still all there.”

Trainer Mike Bass admitted that he had been worried about Pocket Power until as recently as the Thursday before the race, when the “People’s Horse” put up a terrific piece of work and indicated that he was back in fighting mode.  Bass also remarked that he didn’t think the pace being set by Grafton Street was all that strong, a view which seems justifiable by where the frontrunner eventually finished, and that it couldn’t have been a simple matter for Pocket Power to reel him in and win so comfortably.  Despite the small field and the obvious question marks over Bravura’s fitness, the Green Point Stakes was by no means a weak contest and the winning trainer went on to describe it as a “mini Queen’s Plate.”

Quite obviously, Pocket Power will be targeted next at the Gr 1 Queen’s Plate, a race which he will be bidding to win for an almost preposterous fifth year in succession, ahead of a bash at winning the J & B Met for “only” a fourth time.  If somebody doesn’t stump up the cash to erect a statue of Pocket Power at Kenilworth once he finally does retire, it will be a sin.  Where he slots into the list of the best horses that we have seen in our lifetimes is a matter of opinion, but it is highly debatable whether any horse on earth in modern history has achieved at one single racecourse what Pocket Power has done at Cape Town’s premier track and it would be easy to overlook that Saturday marked the third time that he has won the Green Point Stakes.  In fact, Pocket Power has never been beaten over 1600m on either of the two Kenilworth courses, having sat the Green Point out when Fabiani won it in 2009.

Once again, co-owners Marsh Shirtliff and Arthur Webber were full of admiration both for their “life-changing” horse and for the entire Mike Bass team.  Pocket Power’s ongoing foot problems over the years are well documented, yet he comes back for more, time and time again.  The way in which he reversed form with Tales Of Bravery would suggest that Pocket Power had come on a ton since his reappearance in late October, and that bodes well for him as the Cape summer season gets into top gear.  The son of Jet Master and Prince Florimund mare Stormsvlei took his career earnings to within around R100k of the almost other-worldly R10 million mark with this success.  Bred at Zanvliet Stud and a R190 000 acquisition from the 2004 Cape Summer Yearling Sale, Pocket Power can now boast 20 wins from 41 starts.  His Kenilworth record in isolation stands at 16 wins from 25 appearances.