A guinea for your thoughts

Mike Moon: Talk about prospects in the Guineas draws a few questions.

The Guineas? Am I going fortune-hunting in dodgy parts of Africa? Gold, oil or coup? Filthy jail on Black Beach, Malabo?

Maybe. A decent splodge of wonga could stir the old mercenary spirit yet.

But, seriously, I was considering racing form for tomorrow's Gauteng Guineas at Turffontein, a contest that throws promising three-year-old horses together. The race also kicks off the 2011 Triple Crown and the Highveld's monied autumn feature season.

But what's with the name Guineas?

It derives from the 2000 Guineas and 1000 Guineas races in England - also three-year-old classics. The prizes there are no longer small change in guineas - being more in the region of £500000 - but those Brits do like tradition. So what's a guinea?

It's long-gone British coinage. The guinea was the first machine-made gold coin, appearing in 1663 and being issued until 1813. It was originally worth 20 shillings, or a pound sterling, but fluctuated in value.

The name came from the Guinea region of West Africa, the source of the gold for the first coins.

Even after the guinea stopped circulating, the term was used for centuries in the Pom-zone to denote an amount of 21 shillings, or £1.05 after decimalisation.

The guinea carried aristocratic pretensions, being used to quote prices for things like professional fees, land, art, furniture, bespoke tailoring and horses. Nowadays it only applies to auction livestock and racehorses.

While we're on the Wikipedia trail: Africa has three Guineas - Guinea-Bissau, Republic of Guinea and Equatorial Guinea - all sad African archetypes of poverty, thieving politicians and squandered potential.

Then there is Papua New Guinea in the southwest Pacific, which got part of its name from a Portuguese sailor who thought the headhunter natives looked a bit like people he'd seen in Africa.

I discover too that the word guinea is a vile slur when hurled at an Italian-American - apparently due to the suggestion that he or she might have African ancestry.

We stray into un-PC territory. Back to racing.

Pierre Jourdan's brave bid last year to capture the elusive Triple Crown has reignited interest in the series - in which victory in all of the Guineas, the Classic and the Derby, over increasing distances, in the space of three months, carries a bonus prize of R2-million.

Champion trainer Mike de Kock holds a strong hand in tomorrow's R1-million Guineas over 1600m. All three of his runners are fancied to win, but Link Man is favourite at 18/10.

The grey son of Toreador heads overseas later in the year and needs a tad more black type at home to gain easy access to big-money races in Asia.

He looked a pure sprinter until a recent win over 1450m indicated he goes a mile - though maybe not the 2450m of the Triple Crown's final leg.

Selections:

Guineas (Race 8): 1 Link Man, 5 Galileo's Destiny, 6 The Plunderer, 4 Perana

Fillies Guineas (Race 7): 1 Hollywoodboulevard, 5 Without Malice, 2 Igugu, 7 Welwitschia