Brave and bold decisions to stand up and make change, not just for the sake of it, appear to be paying dividends for Cape Racing.
Sunday’s ‘revamped’ Hollywoodbets Kenilworth features show a dramatic lift in quality.
Piet Steyn steps Gem King out in the R300 000 WSB Gr3 Variety Club Mile where he defends his crown against a quality field that is headed by WSB Cape Town Met third-placer Pomp And Power.
Gem King is back on Sunday in defence of his title (Pic – Chase Liebenberg)
The decision to change the Cape Winter Series from a three-year-old ‘Triple Crown’ and ‘Triple Tiara’ to an event open to all ages was proposed by Cape Racing’s Head of Racing Operations, Justin Vermaak.
Talking to the Sporting Post earlier this week, a delighted Vermaak said that the table below shows a terrific jump in quality after the average merit ratings for the age restricted Grade 3’s had come precariously close to falling off the cliff into non black-type territory.
The Variety Club Mile as an example has gone from an average rating of 88 in 2020 to 110 this year.
Have a look at this table:
Table
As reported in Turf Talk, the third leg of the colts and gelding series was changed from a 2400m race to a 2000m race, whilst the first two legs over 1600m and 1800m respectively remained the same.
The corresponding series for fillies and mares was changed from 1600m, 1800m and 2400m races respectively to 1400m, 1600m and 1800m races.
The proposals were discussed at a Pattern Committee meeting last August and were subsequently ratified by the committee.
The Winter Triple Crown had gained a reputation for putting good backward horses on the map i.e. good horses who were not forward enough to take part in the Cape Summer three-year-old features and who also avoided travelling to KZN for the SA Champions Season.
The most notable example was the great Pocket Power, who was the first horse to land the Winter Series Triple Crown before going on to win the Met three times, the L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate four times and the Durban July once, among other races.
Power King, who like Pocket Power also went on to win the Durban July, narrowly failed to land the Triple Crown when beaten 1,25 lengths by Dynastic Power in the Winter Derby of 2014.
However, subsequent to him, both African Night Sky (2017) and Katak (2020) landed the Winter Triple Crown. Last year the series put Gem King on the map as a serious racehorse as he won the first two legs and went in to the Derby as hot favourite, but ran below par.
In the fillies series last year Young Love won the first leg and it was unfortunate that she was sidelined for the second leg, because she came back to win the last leg.
The Gr3 Champagne Stakes has been opened from a race restricted to the fairer sex, and Sunday’s field hosts 9 runners – 7 of which are males.
While some will be of the opinion that the changes have signalled the end of a valued tradition in some cases, the decisions appear to have had the desired results.
Grab a racecard for the weekend:
