Despair for top trainers as fancied horses for Champions Cup draw badly

In a freak occurrence, the three horses likely to dispute favouritism for the R1.25m Champions Cup at Greyville on July 29 have all drawn wide barriers. The trio are Al Muthana, Princess Calla and Durban July runner-up See It Again.

The trainers of these three top performers — Ricky Maingard, Sean Tarry and Michael Roberts — can be excused if they uttered an obscenity on learning where their charges had drawn.

See It Again has the highest merit-rating of the three horses at 131 followed by Al Muthana on 130 and Princess Calla 127.

In the early market, World Sports Betting quote See It Again as the 28-10 favourite with Al Muthana on offer at 6-1.

Roberts is sure to have discussions with owner Nic Jonsson concerning the participation of See It Again who had a hard race in the Durban July. It might be dangerous to back the three-year-old at this early stage.

Maingard has always maintained that this grade 1 race has been the chief objective of Al Muthana and the Aussie-bred is likely to take his chance despite his wide berth.

Princess Calla, winner of the Ridgemont Garden Province Stakes on July day, falls into the same category as See It Again. A decision whether the Flower Alley mare takes her chance might not come till closer to acceptance time.

One person happy with the Cup draw is Mike de Kock whose three-year-old, Dave The King, drew in pole position. The Gary Player-bred son of Global View turned in a decent effort in the July finishing sixth about five lengths behind Winchester Mansion.

De Kock has entered three horses for the R1m HKJC Gold Cup with Aragosta, Black Thorn and Mambo Come Tesio probable runners from his Randjesfontein stable. There are two previous winners of this 3,200m marathon among the 22 entries with Sean Tarry’s 2021 winner, Nebraas, and Tony Peter’s 2022 victor, Shangani, both attempting to score a second win in the race.

Shangani has a merit-rating of 120 compared to Nebraas’ on 117, Runaway Song 116, Aragosta 114 and Future Pearl 112. The last-named has been marked up 28-10 favourite in the early market.

Aragosta is second favourite at 6-1 followed by One Way Ticket at 8-1 and Shangani at 9-1. No surprise if the latter shortened from that price.

Sandringham Summit was a 6-1 winner for this column in the grade 2 Golden Horseshoe on July day, but again the draw has been unkind to an fancied entry with David Nieuwenhuizen’s youngster drawing 19 out of 21 entries for the Premier’s Champion Stakes.

Tarry’s top juvenile, Lucky Lad, isn’t positioned much better at stall 17, but Tony Peter will be happy with stall seven for his unbeaten Pathfork gelding, Main Defender. He cost R140,000 as a yearling and earned R180,000 for his win in the BSA Sales Cup.

No surprise that World Sports Betting have priced up Lucky Lad as the 2-1 favourite — he is unbeaten in four starts. Main Defender and Sandringham Summit are both quoted at 33-10.