Stage is set for Mike Bass's fairy-tale farewell

29 July 2016 - 12:02 By Mike Moon

Masalanabo Modjadji, Rain Queen of the Balobedu people of Limpopo, has been officially recognised by the state as a full-fledged monarch - joining 10 tribal kings on the government payroll.Gold Cup has been shifted to Sunday in the hope that the water-logged course will dry outThis week's heavenly celebration of this news puts the Balobedu blue blood in a different class to the other crowned bunch. Kings who reign in faraway places generally come to public attention only when we're told of the chunks of public money they've burned through. And when their fondness for a zol or a dop gets out of hand.Modjadji, by contrast, is 11 years old and doesn't get off her head. The calling is clear to the young mind: make rain. In mid-winter, with no cloud in the sky, the drought-ravaged country needed rain and she needed to demonstrate her appreciation of taxpayer largesse.OK, Modjaji, you've proved your point. Now can we get our racing back on schedule!Races have been cancelled, postponed and had venues switched, but the one we're worried about is this weekend's Gold Cup at Greyville. The marketed "Super Saturday" has been shifted to Sunday - in the hope that the water-logged Durban course will dry out enough to allow one of the great meetings of the year to take place within the current season, which ends on.Sunday.The weather forecast is good (just don't tell that kid up north).There are three Grade 1 races on the card but, ludicrously, the marquee event, the time-honoured Gold Cup, the country's premier staying race, isn't one of them. It's been downgraded to a Grade 2 by some clever dicks and I don't care what the rationale is - I feel like complaining to someone influential who can do something to put things right again. Queen Modjadji?OK, finding a winner is more important.The horse with the best current form is Dean Kannemeyer-trained Cape Speed, who is neatly drawn, has a top jockey on board and looks well-weighted. The only thing against him really is his age - he's only three and I can recall only one horse that age winning this arduous test.That horse was trained by Mike de Kock, the maestro who has no fewer than five runners this year. Just one of those is three, Kinaan, while three are four-year-olds and one a creaking five. Four of these horses made up the quartet in the recent Gold Vase, but I have an inkling that the fifth of the quintet, The Centenary, might be the one most likely.The classiest runner is Master Sabina, trainer Geoff Woodruff's six-year-old Summer Cup champ. He finished just three lengths off the winner in the Durban July after a rough passage, he's finished a close-up fifth in the Gold Cup before and he's won on soft going.The Mike and Carol Bass Champions Cup is racing's set-piece farewell to one of South Africa's greatest trainers, who hands in his licence on Monday.The obvious winner in a moderate field is, you guessed it, trained by the venerable Mike Bass himself - Marinaresco. The opposition won't stand back for him, but this up-and-coming three-year-old will make it look as if they have done just that.   ..

There’s never been a more important time to support independent media.

From World War 1 to present-day cosmopolitan South Africa and beyond, the Sunday Times has been a pillar in covering the stories that matter to you.

For just R80 you can become a premium member (digital access) and support a publication that has played an important political and social role in South Africa for over a century of Sundays. You can cancel anytime.

Already subscribed? Sign in below.



Questions or problems? Email helpdesk@timeslive.co.za or call 0860 52 52 00.