The Racing Renaissance Cape Summer Season Of Champions begins on Sunday 26 November with a nine-race card, headlined by the Grade 2 Cape Punters Cup, that marks the return to Cape Town’s most celebrated racing playground, Hollywoodbets Kenilworth.
That 1600m feature, run over the same course and distance as the Cape Guineas, is widely regarded as a ‘traditional’ trial and often the key pointer to the mid-December Grade 1 Classic.
The Cape Punters Cup – known as the Selangor Cup until 2017, and the Concorde Cup from 2018 to 2021 – boasts an impressive roll of honour that includes, among others, top-level international performers Variety Club and Jay Peg, active stallions Act Of War, Gold Standard and Malmoos, as well as Cousin Casey, who won last year’s Cape Punters Cup as Equus Champion Two-Year-Old Colt of the previous season.
Coincidentally, the latter lines up in the Grade 1 Betway Summer Cup at Turffontein a day before the Kenilworth meeting and is one of the leading lights in the 2000m Highveld showpiece having finished an eye-catching second in the Grade 2 Charity Mile in his first start since leaving Glen Kotzen to join Sean Tarry’s stable of stars.
And in Tail Of The Comet, Tarry has another exciting prospect and potential Cape Punters Cup winner on his hands. He made his debut at Hollywoodbets Scottsville with a big reputation and was strongly supported in the betting but was, nevertheless, impressive in annihilating his rivals by more than five lengths, which prompted connections to pitch their Gimmethegreenlight colt in the deep end of the Grade 2 Umkhomazi Stakes at Hollywoodbets Greyville over 1200m in just his second start. He ran on powerfully from last to finish third, beaten under a length by Outlaw King (runs in Race 7) who had experience and Grade 1 form to his name, so he lost nothing in defeat on that occasion.
In two starts this term, however, three-year-old Tail Of The Comet appears even smarter and a consummate professional. He made a winning seasonal reappearance over 1450m on Turffontein’s Inside track by 2.60 lengths following which he was aimed at Cape Racing’s Ready To Run Sale Stakes at Hollywoodbets Durbanville last month. And boy, he could not have been more impressive!
While his detractors may point to the fact that was a restricted sales race, Tail Of The Comet hardly exerted himself and was geared down by jockey Richard Fourie to win that 1400m event by 4.25 lengths – a margin of victory that could have been doubled and flatters only the runner-up!
The manner in which he blasted away from his rivals in the closing stages gave the impression that he’ll have no issues seeing out 1600m, but there are stamina doubts if assessing his pedigree. His sire Gimmethegreenlight was a high-class Grade 1 miler who finished third in the Grade 1 Met, while his dam only won up to 1100m and was Listed-placed over 1200m.
Be that as it may, it’s hard not to be impressed by Tail Of The Comet who is obviously laden with talent and has an attitude to match.
He is another off the conveyor belt of Tarry-trained stars and it should pay to follow his progress in Race 7 as well as next month’s Cape Guineas.
Grade 3 Cape Classic winner Questioning is also on a steep upward trajectory. Vaughan Marshall’s charge has won both starts over 1400m and stamped himself as a leading three-year-old contender when asserting his authority over re-opposing rivals Snow Pilot and Green With Envy last time.
Like Tail Of The Comet, Questioning will also be entering unchartered territory late on in his first start over 1600m. For Trifecta and Quartet purposes, last-start winners Zoomie and Hluhluwe must be considered/included.
Veteran Rio Querari is the highest-rated runner on the card and Justin Snaith’s stable stalwart will take all the beating in Race 6, the 1200m Non-Black Type Bantry Bay Stakes which was won last year by Surjay who returns from a four-month absence bidding to defend his title. However, with superior fitness on his side after two encouraging comeback outings, best-weighted Rio Querari is one of the better bets on the card and worth a confident punt on the nose.
Race 7 is the Listed Sophomore Sprint and a quality field of three-year-old colts and geldings will line up at the 1200m mark, though none make more appeal than promising Outlaw King who performed at a high level during a juvenile campaign that yielded a second to Tarry-trained star Lucky Lad in the Grade 1 Gold Medallion and a Grade 2 victory in his final appearance last season.
Race 1 and Race 2 are also Non-Black Type contests on a card littered with quality. The opening event over 800m is the first Cape Town two-year-old scurry of the season, so there is no form to go on and the betting exchanges could provide a more accurate guide to the chances of the 11 ‘babies’ engaged.
Race 2, on the other hand, features the best bet on the card in Gaynor Rupert’s Drakenstein Stud home-bred Golden Hostess who was a facile winner of the Grade 3 Diana Stakes by 3.25 length last time out.
Clive Robinson
