Trainer Mike de Kock’s Dave The King heads a stellar cast of 19 runners, including three reserves, in the Allied Steelrode Onamission Charity Mile to be run at Turffontein on Saturday 2 November.
This 1600m Grade 2 contest is a popular event on the Highveld racing calendar as the industry gives back to a multitude of charities, with each horse in the race paired randomly with a charity that will receive a donation based on the finishing position of their runner.
Dave The King finished ninth in this race last year and was subsequently gelded, a decision that has paid off handsomely. This son of Global View has thrived since, winning back-to-back Grade 1 races during the winter season en route to claiming Equus Horse Of The Year honours.
He earned a well-deserved break after winning the Grade 1 Champions Cup in late July and it is unlikely he will be fully tuned ahead of his reappearance in the 2024 renewal of the Charity Mile, Race 7 on a 10-event card littered with feature races.
Be that as it may, Dave The King sets a very high standard and it won’t come as a surprise should he prevail. His detractors will point not only to the 97-day absence from which he returns but also the hefty 63kg that De Kock’s charge has to lug up the hill and around the bend of Turffontein’s Standside track. However, it is a feat Dave The King has become accustomed to.
He carried 62kg when finishing second, conceding 10kg, to well-performed Unzen over 1400m when resuming after a three-month break earlier this year, and gave weight (10kg) and a beating to seven rivals when winning under 62kg at Hollywoodbets Scottsville in a 1500m Pinnacle Stakes race in his final preparation outing before the first of his successive Grade 1 victories.
Champion Jockey Richard Fourie, whose only association with Dave The King yielded Champions Cup glory, unsurprisingly retains the ride.
With a target on his back and concerns about his race-readiness, especially under the big weight, there are dangers aplenty, none more so than progressive four-year-old fillies Frances Ethel and Silver Sanctuary. Both made eye-catching reappearances on the Inside track over 1600m three weeks ago and would’ve tightened up with the benefit of those encouraging seasonal pipe-openers.
Others with legitimate winning aspirations include last-start Grade 2 Joburg Spring Challenge winners Celtic Rumours and Back In Business.
Races 5, the 1400m Starling Stakes for three-year-old fillies, is the first Grade 3 contest on the card and trainer Brett Crawford – whose Highveld satellite yard is overseen by his son, James – holds all the aces with New Predator filly Fatal Flaw, runner-up in the Grade 1 Thekwini Stakes during a promising juvenile campaign in which she got the better of re-opposing Starling Stakes rivals World Of Alice, Little Ballerina and impressive last-start winner Oxalis Gold.
Trainer Sean Tarry has four strings to his bow in the colts and geldings equivalent, the Grade 3 Graham Beck Stakes over 1400m (Race 6), spearheaded by The Specialist, a flashy chestnut colt by The United States, and Legend Of Arthur, a Lancaster Bomber colt. They should fight out the finish with the former, Gavin Lerena’s mount, only a tentative selection ahead of Fourie’s ride.
Tarry, Crawford and De Kock are all represented in the third of the Grade 3 contests, the 1800m Yellowwood Handicap (Race 8), in which the latter saddles a three-pronged attack.
Well-bred Champagne Cocktail is of particular interest on her belated reappearance following a 245-day absence. This full-sister to the stable’s Grade 1 Durban July winner Sparkling Water looked a star in the making after winning her first two starts by an aggregate margin of 12.50 lengths but she lost her way when tested in three-year-old feature races. She is lightly raced and remains open to improvement, so her progress must be monitored.
Stablemate Forgiveness has won consecutive recent outings under Serino Moodley and a 4-point penalty for the latest of those victories shouldn’t halt the momentum of De Kock’s charge, especially with just 52kg on her back.
However, it could pay to side with Crawford’s Donna Mo after her eye-catching comeback second over 1450m, a distance patently short of her optimum trip. She scythed through the field to finish just a length off the well-handicapped winner and a quick 11-day turnaround suggests this daughter of Royal Mo has come out of the race and taken that run well.
Clive Robinson
