Power Pair. Igugu and Delpech charge to Met glory
It all nearly went pear-shaped for Igugu in the J&B Met. Nearly, but not quite. Overcoming an interrupted preparation, an 18 hour road trip from Gauteng and a far from smooth passage in the race itself, Igugu still managed to avoid piling onto the rocks like an equine Costa Concordia and came through to snatch a heart-stopping victory in Kenilworth’s showcase event on Saturday, writes MATTHEW LIPS.
On paper this was by no means the best race that South Africa’s horse-of-the-year has ever run, but you know that there were serious concerns ahead of the J&B Met when Mike de Kock remarked afterwards, “I’m humbled by this performance.” Igugu showed the heart of a champion to pull these particular irons out of the fire, and we can only hope that the oft-criticised and almost universally detested export protocols will finally allow her to now strut her stuff on an international stage.
Igugu was very well treated by the conditions of the Met as they stand these days and even the various concerns which existed about her lead-up to the race couldn’t stop punters from plunging onto De Kock’s star as she shortened into 15/20 favourite to beat fourteen rivals in the 2000m event. Despite considerable stamina question marks, Gr1 L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate hero Gimmethegreenlight was a popular 11/2 second favourite in his bid to become the first three-year-old to land the Met since Igugu’s stable companion Badger’s Coast a dozen years earlier. You could have had double figure (at least) prices about any of the others as The Apache went off as the 10/1 third choice of punters.
The early pace looked somewhat muddling to say the least, but it was quickly apparent that the widely-held scenario of Igugu attempting pillar-to-post tactics would not come to pass. She found herself a few lengths off the early action as top weight Bravura was soon taken to the front by Anton Marcus, with Gimmethegreenlight and Astro News closest to him. Fabiani and Beach Beauty were next in line, with Igugu and Emerald Cove further back as The Apache raced towards the rear and Run For It dropped out to the back.
Marcus proceeded to give Bravura what deserves a place in history as one of the best losing rides imaginable. He continued to dictate the pace until into the straight, where he set the 2010 Gr1 Cape Derby winner alight and skipped a couple of lengths clear as Gimmethegreenlight shadowed his every move. Igugu had to work her way to the centre of the course to try and mount a bid, finding herself with some five lengths to make up on Bravura as the latter made the best of his way home. It looked virtually like mission impossible for the favourite as she made what looked to be painfully slow inroads down the stretch, and even 200m out Bravura appeared to have quite likely pinched the Met, but Igugu is not one of those horses who can only shine when everything goes their way.
Driven for all she was worth by Anthony Delpech, Igugu wore down the frontrunner inside the final furlong, eventually collaring Bravura in the final few strides and going on to win by an official margin of 0.40 lengths. Gimmethegreenlight gave it everything he had and appeared to see out the 2000m well enough, but he was outpaced in the last stages of the contest and finished three-parts of a length further behind Bravura in third. Run For It, third in the race twelve months earlier, finished strongly to take fourth place this time around, about a neck behind Gimmethegreenlight. Beach Beauty was fifth ahead of the joint sixth finishers, The Apache and Astro News, all three of them beaten less than two lengths by the winner. Tales Of Bravery seems best suited to shorter than 2000m and finished eighth, but he was not beaten much more than two lengths and that would appear to be further evidence that the Met was run at no frantic pace.
“You ride a slashing race, and lose – by one and all you’re banned!” wrote Australian bush poet Banjo Patterson in his frequently quoted (and devastatingly insightful) racing poem “The Riders In The Stand”, but you’d need a heart of granite to “ban” Anton Marcus for his efforts on Bravura. He did everything absolutely right and one has to feel for him, but at the end of the day he was simply beaten by a superior animal that overcame considerable adversity to stamp herself as a filly with the sheer courage to match her outstanding talent. Piere Strydom, too, rode a perfect race on Gimmethegreenlight, who showed that his Queen’s Plate success was no fluke and who looks to be just about every inch as good as his sometimes criticised 117 merit rating says he is.
Igugu became the first horse since Pocket Power three years ago to land the J & B Met after winning the previous season’s Vodacom Durban July, a feat which has also been achieved by the likes of Politician and London News. That’s select company, to put it mildly. “She wasn’t the Igugu she was in the July,” remarked her trainer after the Met, reminding viewers that she was forced to spend a great deal of her Cape Town stay in the Kenilworth quarantine station because of an African Horse Sickness outbreak in Gauteng. It must have been a nerve-wracking lead-up even for a trainer with Mike de Kock’s global experience, and the sense of relief was palpable even to the television audience.
Anthony Delpech noted that things had seriously not gone for Igugu during the race. “She struggled to hold her position early, and she was cut into quite badly,” he said, adding that there was a time coming down the straight when he thought he could never catch Bravura. The combination of champion horse, champion trainer, and champion rider eventually won the day – but it was a close run thing and Igugu ran well below her 117 merit rating as she met Bravura (rated 113) on some 5kgs better terms than in a handicap. She won, though, and that’s all that matters. She fully deserves her chance at a European campaign and – who knows – maybe even a bash at a race like the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. On pedigree, at least, this distant relative of 2008 Arc heroine Zarkava would not be out of place in the Longchamp line-up even though she’d be facing opposition of a rather different calibre to what she has taken on locally. If she can get there, why not give it a try?
By salvaging victory from the jaws of defeat at Kenilworth, Igugu maintained her proud record of never having been beaten by a male rival. Only the fillies Hollywoodboulevard and Ebony Flyer have defeated the daughter of Galileo, whose value as a future broodmare knows no bounds. Undefeated since December 2010, Igugu has less than nothing left to prove domestically and there is no reason why she cannot continue to get even better than her best rating to date. The four-year-old should only now be hitting her physical peak, and we all want to find out exactly where she fits into the worldwide scheme of things. Bred in Australia, Igugu is the second foal of the unraced Intikhab mare Zarinia, from an excellent Aga Khan family, and was acquired for R1 million at the 2009 Ready To Run Sale by Andre MacDonald, who now races her in partnership with Sheik Mohammed Bin Khalifa Al Maktoum. Her ten wins and two seconds from twelve starts have earned Igugu stakes of R5 684 375.
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J&B Met (SAf-G1) (1/28)
Kenilworth, South Africa, January 28, R2.5 million, 2000m, turf, good, 2.03.75 (CR 2.02.10).
IGUGU (AUS), 57.0, b f 4, Galileo (IRE) – Zarinia (IRE) by Intikhab. Owner Sheikh Mohammed bin Khalifa al Maktoum and A J MacDonald; breeder Kia Ora Stud (AUS); trainer M F de Kock; jockey A Delpech (R1.425.000)
Bravura (SAF), 60.0, b g 5, Silvano (GER) – Musing (SAF) by Centenary
Gimmethegreenlight (AUS), 54.0, br c 3, More Than Ready – Yes She Can Cancan (AUS) by Canny Lad (AUS)
Margins: ½, ¾, nk
Also ran: Run For It (SAF) 57.5, Beach Beauty (SAF) 55.0, The Apache (SAF) 59.5, Astro News (SAF) 52.0, Tales Of Bravery (SAF) 58.0, Super Storm (SAF) 58.0, Cask (SAF) 58.0, Lion In Winter (SAF) 58.0, Ilsanpietro (BRZ) 58.0, Emerald Cove (SAF) 57.0, Smanjemanje (SAF) 58.0, Fabiani (SAF) 58.0
