Mike de Kock will aim to carry off the Group One Audemars Piguet Queen Elizabeth II Cup for a third time
Last Updated: 23/04/14 3:01pm
Mike de Kock will aim to carry off the Group One Audemars Piguet Queen Elizabeth II Cup for a third time on Sunday.
The South African handler will be represented by Vercingetorix and Sanshaawes who, like his previous winners, arrived in Sha Tin off the back of successful campaigns in Dubai.
Sanshaawes landed a pair of 2000m handicaps at Meydan before running seventh in the Dubai World Cup while Vercingetorix followed an 1800m handicap win with victory in theJebel Hatta and, on World Cup night, the four-year-old colt was not disgraced in losing his unbeaten record to the impressive Just A Way, passing the post just over six lengths second to the Japanese star in the Dubai Duty Free.
“I was extremely happy,” said de Kock of that latest effort. “At the top of the straight I thought it was race over, but I was biased, I was only watching mine and then I looked at the Japanese horse come up behind him. That was almost a shock as he went past him because Vercingetorix is a good horse, he wasn’t stopping, and the Japanese horse went past him like he was looking for parking!
“Christophe (Soumillon) got off and said ‘I thought my horse was going to win it, so he (Just A Way) must be the best horse in the world’ and I must agree with him, that was an unbelievable performance. We beat a very good field behind: the third, fourth, fifth horses were all top-class and well-rated, and Vercingetorix was well and truly trounced, so he was beaten by a very good horse and he is a very smart horse as well.”
De Kock, speaking to www.hkjc.com from South Africa, revealed that he has been pleased with Vercingetorix’s progress since that run.
“He came out of the race very well,” he said. “He didn’t travel well to Dubai and it may have been a blessing in disguise because it just gave him that much more time and it probably enabled us then to be able to go on the road to Hong Kong and possibly to Singapore as well.”
De Kock believes that Vercingetorix compares favourably with his previous two winners of the AP QEII Cup.
“If one looks at the ratings, he’s probably got to be in a similar league as Irridescence and Archipenko. He’s rated 118 now but he’d be 118-plus. I think he’s on the way up but he’d have to be on a plus rating to win – there are horses rated 124 and thereabouts. He is on the up, it’s hard to compare generations but I’d put him in that league,” he said.
And of Sanshaawes, de Kock believes a line should be drawn through the gelding’s effort when seventh in last month’s Dubai World Cup, but he is clear about which of the two he is leaning towards.
“I think you can draw a line through that, Sanshaawes is a very hot horse, he got worked up on the day, he does get worked up, he sweats up, that’s normal but he reared up quite badly in the pens and got his leg over,” said the trainer. “Nothing went right for him and he was a little tight in running, so he’s a lot better than that and we felt he would have been in the first four if things had gone his way. If he gets a clear run he should be thereabouts on Sunday.
“I would have to side with Vercingetorix, but the ratings would say that as well. Sanshaawes is a very honest horse, where he may lack a little bit of class – he gets going as well and he goes a little more than 2000m, whereas Vercingetorix is at his top end at 2000m, so they’re slightly different horses but I would side with Vercingetorix.”