We have to get excited about the Guineas

galileo's destiny to knock their socks off.approachable is the lurker

Race of the season without the Cape horses? That's like champagne without the bubbles.

too scared to travel!!!

Well guys pouring down in the capital hope its ok 60 klms away?

hibernia Wrote:

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> too scared to travel!!!

That's why every Joburg runner in a Cape Gr 1 this season got slapped by a Cape horse except Mother Russia - and she's an ex Cape horse anyway. Not in the same league, pound for pound.

Look at De Kock's older stars - Irish Flame, Mother Russia and Ancestral Fore all came from Cape Town and Bold Silvano from PE. Now Link Man may be the best 3yo in SA, time will tell, but pound for pound the Cape horses are the best and this season they proved it once again. There hasn't been a Gauteng trained Met winner since 2005, by the way.....

Having said all that, there are Cape horses in Joburg for the season, so that will add a bit of spice to what in my book is comfortably (most years) the least exciting of SA's three Feature seasons.

Oh yes, and the weather usually f#cks something up in Joburg.()

Link Man original from KZN....

gregbucks Wrote:

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> Link Man original from KZN....

Correct. I'll grant you that J J is a genuine 200% Jozi boy, but for the rest....even Pierre Jourdan ran into a brick wall when he started contesting big handicaps. Very good horse, yes, but perhaps a tad overblown by some of his fans, in my very humble opinion.

Anyway, this "great" card tomorrow doesn't have a single Gr 1 race on it and the weather could be dodgy, so I'm afraid that while I am looking forward to the day I cannot face it with quite the same enthusiasm as a big Cape or KZN meeting. Anyway, the rematch between the Aussie girls in the Fillies Guineas (with the completely unknown quantity Welwitschia thrown in for good measure) could be the race of the day.

Isn't De Kock supposed to be a KZN trainer these days anyway? I know it's hard to tell and it varies with the time of year, but I think that is what he thinks of himself as. Now we're getting Charles Laird as well, it seems. A certain Jobrg trainer (who shall remain nameless) who told me just the other day that Gauteng horses are weaker than PE horses was surely exaggeraing, but the balance of power in SA racing seems to have shifted again. At the end of the day I don't really care, I prefer to view SA racing from a national rather than a provincial point of view, but in my book Jozi racing has just never been the same since the end of Newmarket. That, plus this insistence of cramming every big late summer/autumn feature into just three big days, which I think is complete overkill and leads to the most "boring" Feature season of the three during the long gaps in between.

You summed it up 100% Magic.... imo there is too many BAD horses in Gauteng, Bloem was ideal for these lower merit rated horses?
(No offence to owners)

PS. I use to love going to Newmarket with my uncle, he had a horse called Maori Lass who loved the 1600m, we always made some dosh when she ran...

Magic this race must make you tinkleX(

hibernia Wrote:

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> Magic this race must make you tinkleX(

Of course. And as a non punter I appreciate the Guineas even more in a sense because it's not just a case of "the de Kock coupling will win and I sdon't care which one it is." If all you care about is the Pick 6, that rather sad outlook sums it all up.< I enjoy good racikng anywhere and everywhere (overseas included), but it's just not at the top of my list of annual highlights.

we could be witnessing a very special horse in the making today with the name of welwitschia who is actually 2 and a half and even if she doesnt win but runs up close she will have major room for improvement over the rest of the field...as for the colts race perana needs further unless it comes up very soft and i dont believe he has the speed to go with kavanagh or link man

Welwitschia was a January foal, so by northern hemisphere standards she was an early foal and she is in fact already three years old. That said, she could be anything and it would come as no surprise if she proved a cut above today's field and ended up doing the usual Cape Verdi/Balanchine routine in Dubai next season.(

I'll stick to the proven horses today, though, and I don't see why Hollywoodboulevard can't beat Igugu again although of course it can go either way.