Anmaat recalls Hamdan/De Kock glory days

The dismay of punters when 40-1 shot Anmaat won the Qipco Champion Stakes at Ascot on Saturday was a tad tempered in South Africa by nostalgia at seeing the famous blue and white Shadwell silks in a victory salute.

Local fans well remember popular stars like Hawwaam, Soft Falling Rain, Rafeef, Soqrat, Malmoos and many more carrying those colours to notable triumphs on local tracks and in Dubai – for Shadwell owner Sheikh Hamdan and master trainer Mike de Kock.

The sheikh – a towering figure in global racing outside his brother Sheikh Maktoum’s Godolphin behemoth – died in 2018 and his thoroughbred interests were downsized.

No longer a major presence in SA, Shadwell nonetheless rolls on in the UK, under Hamdan’s daughter Sheikha Hissa and famous racing manager Angus Gold.

Shaking things up

Gold says horses like Anmaat are important in keeping the slimmed-down operation “relevant”.

There’s nothing like a Group 1 at Ascot win to keep any racing and breeding operation relevant – especially when they give a beating to media darlings like Calandagan (runner-up at 6-4) and Economics (unplaced at 2-1).

From 132 winners from 630 runners in Britain in 2018, Shadwell’s numbers have dropped to 30 from 194 in the current season about to conclude.

Bella Nipotina

The other big overseas event on local punters’ radar was The Everest at Randwick in Australia. The result there was slightly less of an upset, with a seven-year-old mare, Bella Nipotina (8-1), claiming the richest prize in world racing.

Bella Nipotina delivered a cheque of roughly R117-million to her connections, including trainer Ciaron Maher, who sports a hairstyle reminiscent of Roger Daltrey in his 1970s pomp.

Maher had cause to shake the cascading curls in a My Generation frenzy on Saturday as he not only landed The Everest but also the Caulfield Cup – which is second only to the Melbourne Cup in prestige in Aus.

His charge Duke De Sessa comfortably beat 15-4 favourite Buckaroo.

There were no lustrous locks but plenty of smiles in the winners’ box at Fairview on Friday when Glen Kotzen-trained King Regent was led in.

By winning over 1600m, the heavily backed gelding became the first horse to win all three legs of the Nelson Mandela Bay Racing Poly Challenge and claim a bonus of R250,000 for his people.

Sporting Post worked out that King Regent had travelled more than 4,000km back and forth from Kotzen’s base in Paarl to Gqeberha to complete the notable treble.