L'Omarins Queens Plate festival- Review

Two days of excellent racing, a great effort by the sponsors - L'Ormarins ; Maine Chance; Cartier.
Friday: The extension to a two day festival is an excellent idea. The Friday will no doubt build in popularity in future years - there was not a lot of lead time in promoting this year, and a lot of locals still away on holiday. It will be in their diaries next year!
Jamaica Handicap. Won by Epona, a progressive 3yo filly by Silvano rated MR 90. She will only go up a point or two, as the next three home were honest 4 yo handicappers all on a mark of 82. Epona has plenty of scope for improvement and she should get further than 2000m. Lovely pedigree. The placed fillies are very fortunate to get small black type given their ability.
One to watch next time out in handicap company is 5th placed Silver Willow- deeply under sufferance at the weights she ran a cracker- some 10 lb above her rating, and her official MR cannot change.
Sceptre Stakes: The well bred Trippi filly Live Life stepped up nicely to win and is also a progressive 3 year old. It is tricky to rate this race. Using the third and fourth fillies as line horses and assuming they ran to their ratings of 97 and 94 respectively, then Alice ran well below best at about 102 and Scandal also below best at 90. Live Life improved from 91 to about 100. Real Princess ran another poor race and is way off her KZN form.

Thank you Peter all sounds great and it looked a big success, well done to everyone involved

Saturday- a lovely summers day, but the South Easter picked up steadily and there was a strong headwind for most of the races. A good crowd and great atmosphere. Racing at its best.
Race1: A great opportunity for work riders on a prestigious day, and fittingly the winner was a Maine Chance filly.
Race 2: The Kotzen/ Fourie combination which has a great strike rate recently won with a debut runner. This time for the main sponsors! Juvenile races have been well filled this year and both the R1m race for RTR graduates and the traditional Summer juvenile Listed race on Met day will be very competitive.
Race 4: Gr2 Peninsula Hcp. Whisky Baron looked one of the best bets on the card and showed the expected improvement to win comfortably with something in hand. He ran about a 108 here, which is still way off where he needs to be to justify his price in the Met ante post, but he is on the upgrade and almost certainly will end up much higher than he has shown to date.
It's my Turn ran to his rating of 105. He can win a big handicap, but not WFA unless showing significant improvement. Thanks to Milton, this was a true run race.
Race 5: Gr3 Politician Stakes: Horizon had shown good improvement against older horses at his last start, and was clearly better than his MR of 91 on that run. He duly won fairly comfortably, running about MR 95 here. Still well off the very best 3yos, but he was only having his 5th start and there is plenty scope for improvement. Impeccably bred and an exciting prospect for the future. Newlands ran an honest race in second, improving to about MR 92.

A great days racing, lovely atmosphere, great vibe. ....I had a few words with Eddie Jordaan ( Formula 1 ) in our marquee. ........just something that Joburg battles to match, or even better. Don't know why, but it is a fact.

Race 6: gr 1 Maine Chance Paddock Stakes: One of the most important F&M races we have, and it did not disappoint. Elusive Fort filly Safe Harbour looked a winner, but as in the Fillies Guineas was caught near the line and again denied a Gr 1 victory by a narrow margin. Dynasty filly Bela- Bela justified favoritism and her position as the best filly in the race. She probably ran to her rating of 107 here, but if Safe Harbour is used as the line horse perhaps 109. She may prefer 2000m, and so a tilt at the Met is not out the question with the sex allowance, but I can't see her doing better than a place in the Met.
This race showed that the 3yos and 4yos are more or less on a par at this stage. Silvano's Silver Mountain ran a decent race to give the sponsors third place, and ran close to her rating - i give her 104 here. Silvano also sired 4th and 5th! That would make Nightingale a 102. Star Express improved nicely to run a nose behind in 5th, also 102 to confirm her previous good run. Final Judgement was another nose back in 6th, with just 0.2 of a length separating 4th, 5th 6th. Sail ran a fair race beaten 3L in 7th.
We will no doubt see most of these fillies renew rivalry in the Majorca.

Race 7: Gr L'Ormarins Queens Plate. No doubt the premier WFA mile in the country. Won in fine style by defending champion Legal Eagle. Superbly ridden by Anton Marcus, and perfectly tuned by Sean Tarry, he confirmed his status as the best horse in SA. He ran about MR 119 here, so a bit in hand off his current 123.
Brett Crawford did a great job in ensuring a fair pace, and filling 2nd, 3rd spots. Marinaresco was a little disappointing, but after a bit of interference was too far out of his ground and did not kick as strongly as usual. I gave him just 111 on this run. Sail South ran a cracker, finishing best of all from last place and this 6 yo continues to delight his owners. ( For the cynics out there, small owners can have fun in big races too)
The one to watch next time out in handicap company is Midnite Zone- he ran to a 109 here, and is rated just 102.
Race 8: Gr 3 Chairman's Cup.
Banner Hill stepped up here under a clever ride from Fourie, and relished the trip although they did not go that fast. He improved to about MR 87. Ovidio ran a great race under the huge burden of 62.5kg. Our stayers ranks remain thin.
Race 9: The form did not work out in this race. She's a Giver and Moonlight n Roses ran well below their best. Supercilious ran to a 94 to win this from Miss Marker to give Anton Marcu his third of 4 winners on the day including both Gr 1s.
Race 10. Elusive Path had shown in the RTR race that he is well above his 88 Merit rating, and he duly arrived, running to about 98 here. For once the " get out stakes" worked out.

Thanks for an excellent summary - for me there were a couple of 'below par' efforts on the day ...... mainly Marinaresco, who ran below his best - but every horse has an 'off day' and I still expect him to be the only real challenger to the Eagle in the Met (Whisky Baron I agree ran to 108 - which is quite a lot better imo than his previous efforts, but still will bring him into the Met abt 3 - 4 kgs under sufferance to the Eagle in the Met - almost on par with Bela Bela)

Another 'disappointment' imo is actually Horizon ..... although winning, did not repeat his previous effort imo - obvious dilemma here as alluded to in the interviews, is that he probably needs gelding to show his true potential ....

Then of course She's a Giver - maybe she just does not handle this turn

The last one to strike me as having not run to his rating (and this one I felt in my pocket) was Waiting for Rain ..... on a line through many runners (and especially Milton) should have been right there at the end - challenging Milton for 2nd place

As a matter of interest,a day like last Saturday must have cost various parties a lot of money.
The Sponsors i.e L'Ormarins,Cartier etc etc must have spent a few bob on the day and the recipients, the winning Owners,Trainers,Jockeys and Breeders certainly did all right and I suspect to the chosen few there were freebies going around.
However I assume that the prize money was sourced from the usual 21.5% which is normally deucted from the Tote Revenue.
It makes you think what did Joe the Punter get out of it all!