Variety Club ready for Saturday

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Variety Club ready for Saturday

13 years 5 months ago

Variety Club doing treadmill work - Liesl King

Joey Ramsden is happy with the preparations of his star colt Variety Club for Saturday’s L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate. “He is a very fit horse and thankfully everything has gone according to plan since the Guineas.”

“Malan du Toit has been working with him at the gates and there should be no problems come Saturday.”

Du Toit confirmed that he will be handling Variety Club himself on Saturday and that there should be no fooling around at the gates this time. He explains why young horses often have problems at the starting stalls.

“We want them to stand quietly in the gates and then go into flight mode as soon as the gates open. Some horses are just more sensitive than others and once the adrenalin starts pumping, they find it very hard to control the flight instinct in the gates. While you cannot change their inherent nature, you can modify that behaviour to an acceptable level”.

In the Cape Premier Yearling Sales Guineas, Anton Marcus on Variety Club was able to sit in second behind pace making stablemate The Balladeer. Ramsden has no pacemaker in the Queen’s Plate, but front running Gibraltar Blue should set a strong pace, playing right into Marcus’ hands.

Variety Club was hugely impressive as he romped home by three and a quarter lengths in the Guineas and it will be a very good horse that finishes in front of him, come Saturday.

When asked about future plans, Ramsden responded that despite Variety Club having no stamina in his pedigree, he thinks that the colt will get 2000m and depending on how he runs on Saturday, the J & B Met or the Derby could possibly be his next target.

Liesl King