J&B Met -Back to the present

50 Years back by David Thiselton

The Joey Ramsden-trained Cape Premier Yearling Sales Guineas winner and L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate runner up Variety Club was supplemented for the J&B Met on Monday and as he is destined to become a stallion at Klawervlei Stud he will be a fitting winner as the race falls on the 50th anniversary of a winner who went on to stand at Klavervlei Stud (spelt with a “v” in 1962), the Cookie Amos-trained Jerez.



Jerez was in fact bred by Ralph Koster and Sons. Ralph started the original Klavervlei Stud in Beaufort West and is the grandfather of John Koster, who is the part-owner and Stud Manager of the current Klawervlei Stud in Bonnievale.



Markus Jooste, who along with John Koster is the biggest shareholder in Klawervlei, owns two other potential stallions entered in the Met that could follow in Jerez’s footsteps, the Brett Crawford-trained Dan De Lago and the Mike de Kock-trained Galileo’s Destiny.



Jooste also owns another entry, the Ramsden-trained gelding Bravura, while Klawervlei Stud bred two of Justin Snaith’s four entries, the filly Emerald Cove and the gelding Mystic Moon.



Jerez was one of the most remarkable horses to ever race in South Africa due to his versatility, winning Grade 1s from 1200m (Newbury Stakes) up to 3200m (Gold Cup).



His other three Grade 1 wins were the Cape Guineas, the Champion Stakes (2000m) and the Met (2000m).



He was by the exported British-bred sire Dramatic II, who was by Fair Trial out of a Hyperion mare.



Dramatic II won the Steward’s Cup easily among four wins in the UK and also produced the 1963 Met winner Polar Bear.



Jerez was steady as 7-2 favourite during the week of the 1962 Met and shortened into 3-1 on the day.



He had finished a narrow second to the Peter Kannemeyer-trained Inverthorn in the Queen’s Plate three weeks earlier and won a 1200m race at Milnerton on the Saturday before the big race.



He was the most popular choice of the 25 South African and Rhodesian newspaper tipsters that covered the race.



The Syd Laird-trained Cavalier, who was the second most popular choice among the pundits, put up a good four furlong gallop on the Milnerton racecourse two days before the big race under his big race rider Duncan Alexander.



He was beaten in the gallop by his stable companion Kerason (R Sivewright), who had been a shock winner of the July the previous season (giving Laird the first of his yet to be matched seven Durban July winners).



However, the then Mercury correspondent in the Cape wrote, “Cavalier strode out really well and his rider told me afterwards that his instructions were just to let Cavalier make his own pace without being ridden out. He said that the colt gave him a good feel and that he could not be made fitter.”



Both this correspondent and the Mercury’s Chief Editor, Harwyn Witherspoon, tipped Cavalier, perhaps showing a bit of Natal bias.



The travelling correspondent wrote, “It was on this very day last year that the two I like most, Jerez and Cavalier, met in the mile event. Cavalier had to give Jerez five pounds that day and beat him by a short head. True, Jerez later finished in front of Cavalier in both the Good Hope Guineas, which he won, and the Good Hope Derby … But that Met day race is the one that sticks in my mind as providing each with an equal fair run and ending decisively, if narrowly, in favour of Cavalier.”





The correspondent also felt Cavalier’s wide draw would be to his advantage as this horse apparently didn’t enjoy being crowded.



Meanwhile the Rand Daily Mail correspondent Jack Ramsay, who still attends every KwaZulu-Natal racemeeting at the age of 90 today, had been told by Jerez’s jockey, Johnny Westwater, the day before the race that he “could not lose”.



The big day was sunny with a stiff south-easter and was packed with drama.



Syd Laird probably had a day he would rather forget.



In the pre-race formalities Cavalier kicked him in the face. He had to receive treatment, but was walking around again by the time of the last in which his charge, the great Colorado King, was beaten in a juvenile sprint thanks to a brilliant ride by Harold “Tiger” Wright on a horse called Be Like Dad.



In the Met itself Jerez’s stable companion The Giant, who was to win the big race as a six-year-old in 1964, built up a seven or eight length lead that he maintained in the straight.



The Met was run on the tight Old Course in those days and was often won by frontrunners.



However, The Giant weakened late and Jerez achieved the rare feat of coming from a long way back to flash home and win comfortably in the end by 2,75 lengths in a new record time of 3 minutes, 3,2 seconds, smashing the old record by 1,6 seconds.



Cookie Amos said, “We were very confident from the beginning. I never had a doubt that he would catch The Giant. I have always rated Jerez well above The Giant.”



New Chief was heavily supported on the day shortening from 7-1 into 4-1 and finished second ahead of Appeal Court, Cavalier and The Giant.





There had been drama approaching the bend as Johnny McCreedy, who had been quite prominent at the time on the 25-1 outsider Portavon, eased his mount after suddenly finding his shirt splattered with blood.



He thought his own horse had burst a blood vessel, when in actual fact it was the Highveld raider Speed Fiend who had done so.



Johnny Westwater’s winning high was followed by a low, for on the last race of the day his mount, the Buller Benton-trained Reference, reared over backwards at the start and rolled over him, knocking him unconscious.



He recovered consciousness in the ambulance and a doctor reported his condition as not being serious, although Jack Ramsay recalled that he was later found to have a broken pelvis.



Jerez had fair success at stud producing the Grade 1 winning sprinter Pyrmont, the stakes winner and prolific feature race place getter Aegean, who failed by 0,5 lengths to emulate his sire’s Met win, and the stakes winners Pearl Reef and Samothrace.




Forty Years back



Forty Years ago in 1972 the four-year-old Force Ten gave trainer Theo de Klerk his first winner of the J&B Met, but in that year the big race was somewhat overshadowed by the Cape Guineas run two weeks later which was contested by one of the strongest crop of three-year-olds the country has ever seen, including greats like In Full Flight and Sentinel.



Force Ten’s owner Major Michael Wyatt raced extensively in England where he also owned a stud farm.



He sent a regally bred mare, Dinghy II, who was by Borealis out of a Nearco mare, to South Africa to be covered by Persian Wonder, who later became the Champion Sire on six occasions.



The resultant foal was Force Ten.



Force Ten won five races as a three-year-old and his best finish in a feature was fourth to Mazarin in the Cape Derby, beaten 2,75 lengths.



He won three races in his four-year-old season on the way to the Met, including the Christmas Handicap over 1800m at Kenilworth.



His preparation race for the Met, the Metropolitan Trial Handicap over 1600m at Milnerton, was 10 days before the big race and he finished a neck second to Warrior Gay, who was also a Met contender.



Force Ten was made the weak favourite in the build up at odds of around 4-1 to 5-1, while Kings Guard was his main market rival.



This did not augur well as since World War II only two favourites had won the big race, Jerez in 1962 and Peter Beware in 1969.



Kings Guard beat Force Ten in both the Cape Guineas and the Cape Derby the previous season, but in the 1971-1972 season Force Ten had beaten Kings Guard in an 1800m B Division Handicap at Kenilworth by 1,75 lengths at level weights. Furthermore, he was now going to receive 1kg from the latter in the Met as Kings Guard had subsequently travelled to Johannesburg to win the Summer Handicap (today’s Summer Cup).



The Cape correspondent The Arcadian tipped Kings Guard to beat Force Ten on the grounds that Force Ten had got first fun on Kings Guard in the aforementioned 1800m event.



His tip for third was the 1970 July runner up and 1971 Met third-placed Chichester, now five-years-old and a former winner of both the Cape Derby and the Queen’s Plate.



He tipped another fancied horse, Turn Right, fourth.



He gave a place chance to William Penn, the 1968 Met winner, who was a very interesting runner as he was ten years old and had been put back in training after a spell at stud.



Force Ten duly started favourite on the day at 4-1 with Kings Guard at 9-2.



Force Ten bucked the trend for favourites by running right up to his form and he had no difficulty in drawing clear to win by three lengths from the gallant ten-year-old William Penn, who gave 3kg to the winner. Kings Guard finished third ahead of Warrior Gay.



The win gave top jockey Bert Hayden a big race double as he had won the previous year’s running of the Durban July on the Syd Laird-trained Mazarin.



The following week The Mercury editor Jack Ramsay cast his mind forward to the Cape Guineas and pointed out that with such outstanding previous winners as Shah Abbas, Hawaii, Renounce, Colorado King, Jerez, Response and Sympathetic it had become a more important race than the Met and he reminded also that the great Sea Cottage had finished third in the race, one of his rare defeats.



At that stage the Natal pair In Full Flight, trained by David Payne, and Sentinel, trained by Joe Joseph, were 6-4 and 8-1 respectively.



The pair met 10 days before the event over 1400m at Kenilworth and In Full Flight only just got up by a short-head.



Ramsay, who still attends all the KwaZulu-Natal racemeetings today at the age of 90, went down to the Cape and followed the pair’s progress closely in the final week and found them very hard to separate.



He reported in the Mercury of February 3 that of the pair Sentinel had made the greater improvement since leaving Natal and Joseph had told him that he had needed the 1400m run when narrowly defeated by In Full Flight.



However, he reported that In Full Flight was moving just as magnificently on the training tracks and that Payne had told him that he had most certainly improved since that last win, while also pointing out how much courage he had showed to win that race.



Ramsay, reported that the betting in which In Full Flight was now 5-4 and Sentinel only third favourite at 7-1 was misleading.



The astute Ramsay furthermore reported that he had not been impressed with the way the second favourite, the Highveld raider Derrymore, had travelled as he had got off the float sweating profusely and had looked a lot lighter than when he had seen him winning the Dingaans.



Having watched them work on the Thursday again Ramsay concluded in his Friday article, “On form and on their appearance the race should rest between the two Natal colts In Full Flight and Sentinel and the indications are that if they do dispute the finish there will be very little between them.”



He couldn’t have been more accurate as the pair raced to a thrilling dead-heat the next day.



In an unforgettable finish the pair moved into the lead at the top of the straight with Sentinel under Michael Roberts slightly ahead and they fought all the way up the Milnerton straight into a stamina sapping South Easter. In Full Flight, under Clive Hyde, was just able to nod his head level in the final stride.



In Full Flight, who won 16 of his 20 races, went on to July glory before an untimely death the following year, while Sentinel raced until he was seven and won 27 races.

super

"However, The Giant weakened late and Jerez achieved the rare feat of coming from a long way back to flash home and win comfortably in the end by 2,75 lengths in a new record time of 3 minutes, 3,2 seconds, smashing the old record by 1,6 seconds."

Glad to see the breed's improved a lot since those days!

"the Mercury’s Chief Editor, Harwyn Witherspoon ..." Anyone who calls a helpless little baby a name like that should be had up for cruelty to children.

Jokes aside, thanks for that. It's good to remember (or hear about) the greats of yesteryear.