Ex-jockey Jimmy Ting will train Viva Rio when the Cape Derby ante-post favourite reaches Hong Kong.
Ting, a relative newcomer to the training ranks, is currently tenth on the log with 24 winners.
Viva Rio cruises home in a Fairview feature (Pic – Pauline Herman)
Michael Clower writes on www.goldcircle.co.za that those who backed the horse would have preferred him to have run in the February 22 classic – and so, apparently, would have Glen Kotzen but under the terms of the deal, brokered by Green Street Bloodstock, the horse was sold without the engagement.
“It would have been lovely to get the money and win the Derby – and I tried to get a deal with the engagement – but the purchasers didn’t want that,” Kotzen explained. “In fact I thought we were going to run which was why I didn’t scratch him until the Friday afternoon. I had to wait for the money to come through.”
The exact sum has not been revealed but Kotzen says that, even if Viva Rio won the Derby, the July and a whole lot more, he would not have earned what the new owners were prepared to pay.
