Bookmakers have been playing around with the odds and punters have also been playing a guessing game on which of the horses will bring food on the table and by 4.30pm Saturday, the race will be over and the 2013 OK Challenge crown will surely be resting on the saddle of the winning horse.
The horses will be on the starting stalls at 4.25pm. Although South Africa bred Super Trouper, Ginepri from Argentina and Kenya’s Approval Rating carry the mantle of being the favourites, it is the best horses at Borrowdale race course in the past few years, Captain’s Tiger and Madigan, who will be the centre of focus.
Kirk Swanson’s Captain’s Tiger has been the most consistent horse of his generation with an impressive record of 10 wins and 20 placings in 35 races, including top three finishes in his last six events.
Although carrying his traditional heavyweight jockey Sherman Brown and drawn on the outside lane of 12, Captain Tiger’s has been in similar daunting circumstances before only to finish powerfully.
With that top weight of 60kgs, he has won a 2 700 metre race, a 1 600 metre event, finished second in a race involving 2 200 metres, was a third in a 1 600 metre race. Even with an added two kgs when carrying 62kgs he won a 2 400 metre race. In the recent 2 000 metre Castle Tankard he finished third which is proof enough to show that he is well suited to the race.
What of Madigan. The 2012 Triple Crown winner and Zimbabwe’s Horse of the Year was a big disappointment in the Castle Tankard finishing way back in seventh place out of 14 horses. But that could have been a minor setback as Madigan’s previous performance in the same course makes him a strong candidate for top honours.
Madigan who is being ridden by stable jockey Quinton Riddle has for placings in his last six races including two wins over a distance of 2 400 and 1 400 respectively.
With top horses like Alula Borealis, A King Is Born, Choisir, Orbit War, Royal Arrow, Burmese Cat, Candymancan, Platinum Moon, Final Fling, Pleasant Valley, Directorate, and Charro Negro also in the run, also in the run, this could provide a climaxic ending to one of the biggest horse racing events at Borrowdale.
Post published in: News