j&b Met

Take the slumdog

Rumya with her pedigree @ that low weight could appreciate the distance.
Top top horse with anthony up for the met double.

Me thinks she could sneak it while the boys are flexing their muscle.

The only horse that might come close to VC is Beach Beauty. VC again treated this field in da Queens Plate with contempt. The more they tried the further he went. Definately will see out the 2000m trip.

This is possibly the most complicated Met from a punting point of view and should be a great contest, I will just have a few J and B's with a JWB to give them some taste and take a few pics for the site on a social race for me and find another race for a decent punt -D

winner123 Wrote:

---

> Rumya with her pedigree @ that low weight could
> appreciate the distance.
> Top top horse with anthony up for the met double.
>
>
> Me thinks she could sneak it while the boys are
> flexing their muscle.


(tu)-D(tu)

Master Plan still my e/w value bet
Not a positive stipes report on Jackson post race, did not seem to pull up very well...
What if they skip the Met with VC, if he runs then will be a very close finish as the weights are so close....

how the met should finish at weights:

Variety Club 118
Beach Beauty 117
Martial Eagle 116
Bravura 115
Jackson 114
Castlethorpe 114
Pomodoro 113
Run For It 113
Dubai Gina 113
Slumdog 112

3yos
King Of Pain 111
Rumya 111
On numbers met looks competitive this year and field should be close..cant see bravura and castlethorpe running to their MRs and not sure if martial eagles run was a flash in the pan..at the distance beach beauty now horse to beat but variety club a big runner for sure..jackson and pomodoro also runners and the 3yos have a bit to do still

By David Thiselton



Dennis Drier said that Beach Beauty, who is the best middle distance female he has ever trained, had come out of her brilliant win in the Grade 1 Maine Chance Paddock Stakes over 1800m at Kenilworth on Saturday very well and he wouldn’t have to do much with her before the J&B Met on February 2.



She gave them a galloping lesson,” said Drier. “Her preparation for the (J& Met couldn’t have gone better. She was 100% for the Paddock Stakes and will be 100% for the Met.



The diminutive five-year-old Dynasty mare earned a 2kg Grade 1 penalty for her win on Saturday, but Drier said, “I would take a win of a Grade 1 R1-million race any day. The Met would have been hard to win anyway.”



The bookmakers have placed the impressiveness of the win above the negative of the 2kg penalty as they have shortened her into 7-1, a far cry from her opening call of 20-1.



Drier reckoned Beach Beauty’s maximum trip is probably 2000m, which theoretically should give her a better winning chance in the J&B Met than she had in the Vodacom Durban July over 2200m last year.



Also, unlike the July, Beach Beauty will have a gender allowance of 2,5kg in the Met.



This means that off her new 112 merit rating she is the second best weighted among the current J&B Met nominations behind only Variety Club, and it is still up in the air whether the latter will take his place.



Beach Beauty finished a 4,85 length ninth to current J&B Met second favourite Pomodoro in the Vodacom Durban July, but will face him on 5,5kg better terms.



Drier added that no Grade1 was easy to win, before implying that the July, the Met and the Summer Cup were particularly hard to win.

In last year’s Met Beach Beauty over raced early and still managed a gallant 1,85 length fifth to the great Igugu.



She wasn’t carrying a Grade 1 penalty then, but has shown no sign of over racing in the hands of Sean Cormack, despite his regular tactic of getting her up near the front early.



All things considered, she should be a big runner on February 2.



It will be a stronger field than the Maine Chance Paddock Stakes, but she has proved by winning both the Grade 2 Betting World 1900 at Greyville and the Grade 2 Calulo Services Premier’s Trophy over 1800m at Kenilworth that she is not scared of taking on the boys.

General Entrance tickets cost R185 each. The General Entrance ticket gives you access to Kenilworth Racecourse only and not to any of the reserved areas in the buildings and the marquee village.



This Event is Not Open to Persons Under the Age of 18.



J&B MET 2013 tickets are available on-line from 1 December 2012. You can buy your J&B MET 2013 tickets from iTICKETS ( www.itickets.co.za )



J&B MET 2013 tickets can also be bought at tabGold outlets from 1 December 2012.



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By David Thiselton

Brett Crawford said that Jackson had recovered well from his tough race in the L’Ormarin’s Queen’s Plate in which he pulled up suffering from heat exhaustion.



“It always has to be a concern when a horse pulls up distressed,” said Crawford.



However, he went on to say that the four-year-old Dynasty colt was now “well in himself” back home at the Philippi training centre.



Jackson finished a gallant second in the Queen’s Plate, 2,35 lengths behind the superstar miler Variety Club, despite having adopted tactics foreign to his usual hold up style.



He showed a lot of courage, fighting all the way to the line to pip the Vodacom Durban July winner Pomodoro and the underrated Martial Eagle for that runner up spot.



Crawford said that the handy position he had taken up under jockey Karis Teetan had been planned.



“We had to try and overcome the draw, but Variety Club is a top miler and we have no excuses.”



However, Crawford was unhappy with the false start, in which Variety Club, having backed out of a pen that had not been properly locked, was the only runner not to travel a short distance.



“It’s the only country in the world where this sort of thing happens in Group 1s and makes a mockery of what we’re trying to achieve,” he said. “It has to affect a horse and you are always going to be left wondering what might have happened.”



Crawford said that they would not have to do much with Jackson until his big date in the J&B Met on February 2.



That race is over 2000m, the distance of both his Grade 1 victories.



He comfortably beat Variety Club over the J&B Met course and distance in last year’s Grade 1 Investec Cape Derby, in which his fine turn of foot and resolute finish were seen to their best effects.



Bookmakers still have him favourite at 2-1, the same price he opened at.



Crawford had not yet decided whether Jackson would run with a companion at the Met gallops on the morning of Thursday January 24 at Kenilworth.

Martial Eagle, a dapper bay gelding by Silvano, stands on the edge of a fairy tale having blossomed late in his career from a ninety something rated handicapper into a J&B Met hopeful.



The seven-year-old was formerly trained by the masterful Dennis Drier and it was he who suggested to owner Sabine Plattner, that due to his niggles, the horse should be relocated from his Summerveld yard to her Rondeberg training centre on the Cape’s west coast.



Yogas Govender, Plattner’s private trainer at Rondeberg, said, “Mr Drier was a real gentleman. He knew we had the beach down here and kindly told me about Martial Eagle’s problems and what we needed to do. We took his advice and he is now over his little niggles.”



Govender explained that one of Martial Eagle’s “niggles” was his “sensitive back”.



“We only ever ride him at the track and after that he is led down to the beach where we walk him through the water. The beach is his second home. His back is not as sensitive as it was and he is now a happy horse.”



Many were shocked to see Martial Eagle chasing home Variety Club in last Saturday’s prestigious Grade 1 L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate, in which he started at 200-1.



He looked likely to finish second at one stage, but the two big horses Jackson and Pomodoro came back at him and piped him on the line relegating him to a short-head fourth.



However, Govender was not surprised.



In the build-up to the race, he had said, “I can’t believe the bookmakers have made him 80-1 as he has a chance of making the first four.”



He said after supplementing him for the J&B Met on Monday this week, “His Queen’s Plate run was no fluke. He finished 2,4 lengths behind Variety Club and about 0,75 lengths behind Jackson in a Pinnacle event over 1400m in early November (his first run for over two months). He then raced about four wide in the Green Point and finished only 5,85 lengths behind Variety Club. The horse who sat behind him four wide in that race was Bravura, who is top class, and Bravura finished tailed off last. Martial Eagle was then just touched off in the Jet Master stakes by Thunder Dance when giving her 3kg.”



Govender reckoned that on paper Martial Eagle had to be considered a big runner in the Met if he stayed.



He said, “In the Queen’s Plate, he once again raced wide and was 2,35 lengths behind Variety Club, a long head behind Jackson and a short head behind Pomodoro. He will now be getting 2kg from all of them.”



There has to be a stamina doubt as his dam, the Jallad mare Seeking The Wind, won five times over sprints and the six winners she has produced are mainly sprinter or 1400m types.



However, on the upside, Silvano won two international Group 1s over the Met distance and Martial Eagle’s second dam by Northfields produced a 2000m winner and a Grade 1 Maine Chance Paddock Stakes (1800m) placed horse.



Govender said, “We are quietly confident he will see out the trip. It’s a soft 2000m and we just need to get a good draw.”



Govender was delighted with the way Martial Eagle had taken his Queen’s Plate run.



“I went to see him on Saturday evening and his head was in the manger. On Sunday morning he was ‘freshing’ on the beach. He has taken the run unbelievably well.”



Martial Eagle began his career with Drier running unplaced over 1000m at Scottsville in December 2008, but he improved and in just under two years of racing had gone on to win five events for the yard from 1400m to 1600m, by which stage his merit rating had reached 95.



He continued to run well and in his first 19 career starts was only out of the money three times.



His last run for Drier was in October 2011 and his first for Govender was in June 2012 over 1200m at Kenilworth at which stage his merit rating had dropped to 92.



He finished unplaced and was unplaced in his next run over the same course and distance.



However, he then bounced back to his best at the end of July, coming from well back and weaving his way through to win going away over 1400m on the Kenilworth Old course.



In his next start, over the same course and distance, the same tactics were adopted and he had a clearer run in the straight.



He showed just how good he was, winning easing up by 6,5 lengths.



Govender then threw him into the deep and, just over two months later, he has emerged with flying colours.



Govender has not had a Grade 1 winner in his fledgling career as a licensed trainer, which began at the beginning of the 2009/2010 season after his former guv’nor Brett Crawford resigned from the Rondeberg position.



It would be appropriate if he could soar to this new height through a horse named after Africa’s largest eagle. by David Thiselton