Glen Kotzen’s Investec Cape Derby winner Eyes Wide Open will likely follow the same route as his 2009 Cape Derby winner Big City Life in his forthcoming SA Champions Season campaign.
Big Cty Life
Big City Life finished second in the Gr3 Byerley Turk before reeling off the big race hattrick of the Gr2 KRA Guineas, the Gr1 Daily News 2000 and the big one, the Vodacom Durban July.
Kotzen said about the Dynasty colt Eyes Wide Open, “He’s a seriously good horse and the key to him is he can be switched on and switched off so easily and then can turn it on so well in the straight.”
Glen Kotzen – looking forward to KZN
Monday was a perfect day in Cape Town and Kotzen took the Derby hero from his private Woodhill Racing Estate down to the beach at Melkbosstrand.
His big race rider Richard Fourie rode him out and Kotzen said, “He was fresh and full of himself and has taken the run well. Richard said he could race again tomorrow.”
He is owned by Hugo and Suzanne Hattingh’s Chrigor Stud, who also own Saturday’s Derby third-placed Pack Leader.
Eyes Wide Open was given an exceptional ride by Fourie. He was drawn three but looked in danger of being trapped outside of stablemate Pack Leader as they ran towards the first turn. However, Fourie asked him for a little extra to go ahead of the latter and he then switched him off after he had slotted in behind Kimberley Star. The pace was then slowed right down and rank outsider Steel Rose took it up. At one stage it looked like Steel Rose might steal it. However, Kotzen said, “It suited us to have an unfancied horse in front as I knew he would always fetch him despite the slow pace, it was just a matter of whether anything would come from behind.”
Like A Panther came around the field before the final turn as Anton Marcus realised the pace was too slow. Anthony Delpech on Pack Leader switched off the heels of Eyes Wide open to follow Like A Panther. He headed Eyes Wide Open briefly, but ended up quite wide in the straight. He then hung all the way to the inside and did well to pip Steel Rose for third. Do It Again ran on strongly for second after Eyes Wide Open had already wrapped it up.
Kotzen said about the Philanthropist colt Pack Leader, “We were confident of him going close because of the way he had been working. He was a touch unlucky so it was a nice run to finish in the first three. Anthony said he maybe didn’t quite stay the 2000m.”
Pack Leader – third in Cape Derby
Pack Leader has also taken the run well. The Gauteng classics might be an option for him, but Kotzen cautioned, “Horses can’t do all three seasons, Cape , Johannesburg and Durban, it is too hard for them, so if you do go to Johannesburg you have to give Durban a miss completely.”
A decision has not been made on him yet, but it does look likely another Kotzen-trained star, the Silvano filly Silvan Star, will head for Johannesburg to run in the Grade 1 HSH Princess Charlene Empress Club Stakes on April 21 at Turffontein. She flew up for fourth from a wide draw in the Grade 1 Klawervlei Majorca Stakes on Saturday and Kotzen confirmed, “She doesn’t do well in Durban.”
Kotzen had a fine few days as he saddled a treble on Saturday at Kenilworth and his satellite yard at Summerveld also scored a treble over the weekend.
He said, “What was particularly gratifying about our other two winners at Kenilworth on Saturday (Quickfire and Ostinato) was that they are owned by racing syndicates (The L’Ormarin’s Racing Syndicate and Green Street Bloodstock). Seeing so many owners leading a horse in is priceless, it is the way of the future as it is affordable and the owners get just as much fun and satisfaction out of it.”
Kotzen recalled entering the bidding war late for lot 33 (Eyes Wide Open) at the Bloodstock South Africa Sibaya KZN Yearling Sale of 2016, “When it reached R800,000 we went in with just one bid of R850,000 and secured him. I liked everything about him. He looked like Dynasty, he had real class, a big bright eye and walked like a cat.”
Eyes Wide Open – on the beach
The Highlands Farm Stud-bred colt was a late November 21 foal so would not have been mature enough for the earlier bigger sales. Eyes Wide Open’s Jallad dam Live Your Dreams was placed four times from nine starts and is a half-sister to National Flame, an eleven-time winning sprinter who won the Grade 3 Lebelo Sprint twice as well as the Listed Umgeni Handicap. Eyes Wide Open is a half-brother to Spectrum gelding Living With Heart, who has won three times and finished second in the Byerley Turk. All five of Living Your Dream’s foals have won.
Eyes Wide Open provided the Hattinghs with their first Grade 1 winner last year when he won the Premier’s Champion Stakes for two-year-olds over 1600m at Greyville.
.First Gr1 winner for the Hattinghs back in July 2017
A few racing purists began punching holes in the form of that race as it didn’t appear to be standing up in the early part of this season.
Then when Eyes Wide Open finished only ninth in the Selangor Cup and his Premier’s Champions Stakes runner up Ancestry finished eighth they believed they had confirmation.
However, Eyes Wide Open was found to have a respiratory infection, which caused him to miss the Cape Guineas.
Then the Premier’s Champions Stakes fourth-placed Monks Hood came out and won the Investec Dingaans.
Eyes Wide Open followed by winning the Gr2 Peninsula Handicap and the Cape Derby, while Premier’s Champions Stakes eleventh-placed Captain And Master finished runner up in Saturday US$500,000 CTS Mile. There has had to be a re-asessment of the Premier’s Champions Stakes form.
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