Merit rating cherry on top for Summer Pudding

Summer Pudding had her merit rating shoved up a hefty 10 points – from 119 to 129 – following her sensational victory in Saturday’s 2000m World Sports Betting Gauteng Summer Cup at Turffontein.

This puts Mauritzfontein Stud’s four-year-old in sixth spot in the official rankings of South Africa’s racehorses – behind Rainbow Bridge (134), Hawwaam (134), Do It Again (133), Vardy (133) and Soqrat (130).

With Hawwaam in the process of being exported and Soqrat retired to stud, Summer Pudding is effectively the fourth best horse in the country.

Some racing fans might think she’s better than that, having fallen head-over-heels in love with the charismatic filly after her feats of the past year: nine wins from nine starts, a Triple Tiara, three Grade 1 triumphs and a “major” in the bag.

Any doubts about the quality of trainer Paul Peter’s charge were swept away on a grey, gloomy day at Joburg’s Big T. Competing with males for the first time and giving most of them chunks of weight, starting from the No 18 gate and making her second start after a rest, the odds were piled up against her. She slipped from early ante-post favouritism to start at a generous 7-2.

The National Horseracing Authority described the win as “emphatic” in their press release announcing the MR hike.

The NHA explained the thinking: “The handicappers were of the view that Dance Class was highly unlikely to have run below her mark by finishing fourth in a race of this calibre and elected to use her as the line horse, which leaves her rating unchanged on 96.

“The winner aside, the only other increase was for runner-up Running Brave, who was raised from 114 to 119, but there were ratings drops for three runners. Tierra Del Fuego is down from 120 to 118, Victoria Paige drops from 105 to 103 and, lastly, Hero’s Honour was cut from 110 to 107.”

Only two South African horses are included in the latest Longines World’s Best Racehorses rankings, released on 8 November. Do It Again is joint-28^th and Hawwaam joint-36^th. Their respective point tallies (not linked to local merit ratings) are 121 and 120.

When the next Longines log is posted in January 2021 it will be eagerly scanned by Summer Pudding’s army of new fans.

The top horse in the world is recently retired Ghaiyyath on 130 points. Owned by Godolphin and trained in England by Charlie Appleby, the son of Dubawi won four Grade 1s in 2020: the Dubai Millennium Stakes (named after his grandsire), the Coronation Stakes, the Eclipse Stakes and York’s International Stakes.

In joint second on the Longines list are American star Authentic and British-trained Palace Pier, followed by Addeybb (GB), Bivouac (Australia), Classic Legend (Australia), Persian King (GB), Stradivarius (GB), Tiz The Law (US), Almond Eye (Japan) and Enable (GB).

Another Summer Cup day winner, Grade 2 Dingaans hero Catch Twentytwo, also vaulted in the merit ratings – from 104 to 116.

There were also increases for all the Dingaans placed horses.  Runner-up MK’s Pride was raised from 109 to 112, third-placed Bingwa went from 96 to 111 and fourth finisher Al Muthana from 94 to 105.

War Of Athena’s rating went from 111 to 116 following her victory in the Grade 2 Ipi Tombe Challenge for fillies and mares over 1600m.

Highveld trainer Paul Matchett has nominated this star filly for the WSB Cape Fillies Guineas to be run at Kenilworth on 12 December. She was installed as an 18-10 ante-post favourite when entries for the Grade 1 contest were announced on Tuesday.

The Cape Fillies Guineas is an alternate first leg of the 2021 SA Triple Tiara (along with the Fillies Guineas run at Turffontein).

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