Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid al Maktoum's Majmu (Aus) (Redoute's Choice {Aus}), South Africa's champion
2-year-old filly of 2013-2014, will not make her next start in the G1 J&B Met S. in Cape Town, trainer Mike de Kock confirmed Monday on his website. The news comes despite the lifting of the recent movement restriction ban on horses stabled at Randjesfontein, north of Johannesburg.
“Under current AHS conditions, it has been recommended that we move horses we intend to race in Cape Town to another centre or to Cape Town as soon as possible in case the movement ban is re-instituted, but I don't want to prepare Majmu elsewhere,” the conditioner commented.
Winner of her first three trips to the post, Majmu, an A$300,000 purchase out of the 2013 Inglis Easter Yearling sale, suffered her first defeat when a troubled fourth in the G2 Spring F/M Challenge S. at Turffontein Oct. 4. She bounced back to win the G3 Starling S. at that venue Nov. 1 and most recently shipped down to Kenilworth for a breakthrough Group 1 success in the Cape Fillies Guineas Dec. 6.
De Kock continued, “There are other overriding factors too. Majmu lost weight when she travelled to the Cape and back for the Fillies Guineas and had not put it back on after having had a month to do so. Taking another trip to Cape Town for a major race like the Met will be a bit hard on a young filly like her and could affect her Triple Tiara aspirations. We'd rather bide our time, the Highveld feature season is around the corner in Gauteng and it makes sense to keep Majmu stabled here in view of the Triple Tiara series. We had to make a decision whether Majmu would travel to Cape Town on Wednesday along with Pine Princess (SAf) (Captain Al {SAf}) and Alboran Sea (Aus) (Rock of Gibraltar {Ire}), and after discussions with Sheikh Hamdan's Racing Manager Angus Gold this evening, we considered it to be in Majmu's best interest to take her out of the J&B Met.”
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