There is always a little tension when a champion makes their seasonal debut. Is it too short, is it fit enough and what of the opposition.
Driving rain and a soggy track added to Michael Roberts’ greying crown as See It Again made his return to the track on a wet afternoon at Hollywoodbets Greyville on Saturday. A shock defeat in the Gr1 Hong Kong Jockey Club Champions Cup on the last day of last season put paid to his Equus Horse Of The Year aspirations but in truth he did not get the best of rides from veteran Piere Strydom. Left with a mountain to climb the mare Princess Calla out-sprinted him.
Roberts has stayed loyal to Strydom and Strydom to See It Again. With Turffontein hosting a high-powered meeting on the same afternoon, Strydom did have options but “I didn’t have great rides,” he said post-race. However, had he missed the ride on See It Again he would likely have been headed for retirement sooner rather than later. “I haven’t retired because of this horse,” Strydom concluded.
See It Again was caught in the scrum early and with his goggles fogging up Strydom had to pull them down in spite of the flying clods.
“He didn’t quite settle early and was hard into the bit,” he said. But once clear of traffic at the top of the straight it was just a matter of ‘how far’ as he was hardly off the bit with Cape Eagle trying hard to stretch him.
See It Again did shift ground to his inside, inconveniencing Cape Eagle, but whether he was hanging or professional race-riding, only Strydom will know.
Roberts said that there was always a bit of stress leading into the race, even more with the rain and the track but the colt handled it well and was never under serious pressure.
See It Again is headed to the Cape next month to defend his Cape Met crown and according to Roberts this run will have tightened him up. “He was not puffing as hard as I thought he would be because of the going.
I got this run under his belt just in case he may travel badly and we would have to start from scratch.”
Andrew Harrison, Gold Circle Racing
