Life after the Met

Good morning all and what a superb days racing we were treated to from Cape Town on Saturday.

Just finished the After Life series with Ricky Gervais and although rather risque for sensitive viewers, it was a brilliant show.

On the subject of After Life it's difficult to get our minds around bread and butter racing after the drama and excitement on Met day.

It's fine to have a decent crowd, good coverage etc but in this case the horses and jockeys made this a special meeting.

It's difficult to highlight the exceptional performance as we had :

Warrior (very impressive finish and ride)

Universal ( bold showing and one to follow)

Bohica ( brilliant speed and SManga at his best)

Captains Ransom ( this was a goosebumps race and yes potentially a great ride but full credit to the horse and a proper champion)

Kommetdieding ( great horse, brilliant ride, great training feat from a trainer that could be a model, great owners and the people's horse)

Sparkling Water ( dangerous ride but an exciting win and another horse to follow)

The vote goes to Kommetdieding for a wonderful promotion to SA racing.

In addition thought the 105 grand pick 6 was a decent payout if you had the right structure with 3 possible bankers.
R3.00, R3.70, R6.30,”R32.90”, R2.00, R2.50 a big negative was not getting the update on tickets running forward or estimated payouts.

4 Racing appears to be getting their act together but its a pity GC not part of the overall master plan for racing but they still appear to have the better quality picture.

We had a good MET competition on the site and I came 800th from 14000 in the HW compo, it's hard to believe that 13200 punters are worse than myself.

On subject of the ladies taking over the Sport of Kings 🤴 Well done again to Candice and her team, who continues to turn out the winner's 👏

With the jump season in full swing we also had another cracking race at Cheltenham where 2 of my fav horses clashed, Paisley Park and Champ in a must watch race (it's on the UK thread on the site)
The Stayers should be a great race this year where they will meet again in addition to Flooring Porter, Thyme Hill and Klassical Dream.

Punchestown is a must watch today for more Cheltenham pointers, on the subject of pointers, Kilcuit and Classical Getaway are running.
Plus the Dublin festival on Saturday where many of the Gold Cup contenders run in the Paddy Power Irish Gold Cup.
On the Sunday Honeysuckle runs on day two.

I found myself in Kloof this weekend where I had to deliver a Labrador puppy to the grandkids, they are over the moon even with the nips to their toes but now have to drive back 😢
We did manage to catch the Fleetwood Mac tribute at Tina's and if you ever get a chance to watch this show, it's a must .

So just to sign off it looks like our racing has been split and hope no irreparable damage, "Go Your Own Way." Comes to mind for a song.
As "Work Together " "We Can Work it Out" etc are not options anymore 😪

Good Punting

Safe trip home.

Having failed at odds of 1-14 and 4-9 in his two previous maiden hurdles, last season's Champion Bumper runner-up Kilcruit was not about to look a third gift horse in the mouth as he registered his first success over obstacles in the opener.

Under Paul Townend, he won the 2m maiden hurdle unchallenged. His jumping was still novicey but his sole challenger through the race Bold Approach was unable to put any pressure on him and ultimately the winner comfortably put 21 lengths between them at the line.

As short as 5-1 for the Supreme Novices' Hurdle in the summer, Kilcruit was cut to 12-1 (from 33) for the Cheltenham Festival opener by Paddy Power, with the same firm going 14-1 (from 25) for the Ballymore.

£570,000 purchase Classic Getaway, owned by Cheveley Park Stud, followed in stablemate Kilcruit's footsteps by opening his account over hurdles in the 2m4½f maiden hurdle.