The Equus Award winners for 2021 were announced during the past week to celebrate the current peak level of thoroughbred performances in South Africa.
As usual, some divisions were straight-forward with predictable winners selected unanimously, whilst others must have generated plenty of debate amongst the panelists and caused subsequent controversy/public argument. Regular readers of this newsletter have a good idea what it takes to win big races in SA measured by speed figures. To help put things in context again, here are the career best speed scores to date for the eventual winners in each category:
Two-Year-Old Colt – Good Traveller 97 +
Two-Year-Old Filly – Rain in Holland 91 +
Three-year-Old Colt – Jet Dark 115
Three-Year-Old Filly – War of Athena 108
Champion Older Male – Rainbow Bridge 118
Champion Older Filly – Summer Pudding 108
Champion Sprinter – Rio Querari 116
Champion Miler – Jet Dark 115
Champion Middle Distance – Rainbow Bridge 118.
Champion Stayer – Nebraas 97.
The Juvenile and Stayer picks are somewhat unconvincing due to the lack of eligible races available for the panel to make their calls. There are hard luck stories too in other divisions as some of the nominees who failed to get enough votes also sported strong credentials backed up by big speed numbers. Overall, the winners are well up to standard in their respective divisions – on my scale, Group 1’s in SA require figs of 108 +.
At a less exalted level of racing this weekend, punters at Scottsville battled through a sequence of upset results. The exotics proved incredibly difficult to catch, (even the Bipot was only partially won) and backers of favorites took a drubbing.
Best efforts measured on the clock came from Yogas Govender’s Bayview Express who managed his third win, with a speed figure of 90 proving just enough to thwart Two Of Us in a Handicap, and ghostly “white” horse, After the Rain (speed score 91) produced a good post Maiden effort to notch a quick double. This Master of My Fate colt shows neat potential by improving from one start to the next for trainer, van Zyl (Jnr).
At Turffontein’s Sunday meeting, Foreign Field maintained positive recent form to win an MR 90 handicap over 1600m. He’s been running nicely through the Highveld Winter for Paul Matchett. Marengo (s/s 90) and Midnight Caller (s/s 85) also got decent ratings for the class level at which they are competing.