Mike de Kock looks to have a powerful attack for the Highveld feature season.
Shoemaker (12) can be seen making up ground late as Kaidan Brewer and Anfields Rocket (10) storm home (Pic – JC Photos)
On Saturday at the Allied Steelrode Charity racemeeting at Turffontein the top stable came away with a second place, a third and three fourths. Most of their runners put in encouraging runs for what lies ahead, soon, so this was not a bad day at the races.
De Kock writes on his blog, www.mikedekockracing.com that Shoemaker was the strongest finisher in the Gr3 Allied Steelrode Graham Beck Stakes – the replay shows him making up ground hand over fist in the last 100m and he was desperately unlucky not to have won.
Watch the replay here:
Mike de Kock commented: “That’s racing. Shoemaker had to check badly at a critical stage when he couldn’t barge his way through runners from his position at the back of the field. To my mind, this was not Richard Fourie’s finest hour. Most disappointing was that the owners of Shoemaker were the sponsors of the race day and winning a feature race on their special day would have been great. To achieve something like this is not a case of pushing buttons. Chances are rare and when they come you have to take them.
“But what the race did show was what we have in Shoemaker is a very nice horse for the future, he is indeed as good as we thought he was and we’ll go positively forward with him and Union Square, who finished a workmanlike fourth from a deep draw. He stayed on strongly over a distance too short and we’d love to see how he goes over further now.”
The Stipes said:
At the 350m, SHOEMAKER (R Fourie) had to be steadied to avoid the heels of MERCANTOUR (K de Melo) which rolled out away from RAFFLES (G Lerena) which shifted outwards. Thereafter approaching the 100m, SHOEMAKER attempted to improve position on the inside of ARGO ALLEY (D de Gouveia) and had to be steadied when tightened for galloping room on the outside of ROYAL VICTORY (G van Niekerk) which shifted out away from the crop.
Jockey G van Niekerk the rider of ROYAL VICTORY appeared before the Board and was advised to take the necessary measures to keep his mounts on a straight course
De Kock concluded that Betway Summer Cup log-topper Safe Passage put in his usual game performance, third after a rest in the Charity Mile and he’ll make good improvement into his end-of-the-month mission.
“MK’s Pride was short of his best, as I thought, but he ran well finishing 6.25 off the winner and I venture to say he’ll improve six lengths into his next run. Both Forever Mine and Humdinger found the mile on the soft outside track too testing, they’ll be back for better runs in easier pickings.”
