South Africa: Igugu heads strong Met field

News / Gary Crispe / 22 January 2012 / Leave a Comment

Igugu is the star entry in the J&B Met.

"Igugu, the winner of nine of her 11 starts in South Africa including the Group 1 Durban July, has recovered from a slight setback and is a hot ante-post favourite..."

There were few surprises when the final field was announced for the R2.5-million J&B Met to be run over 2000m at Kenilworth on Saturday 28 January, with South Africa's reigning Horse of the Year Igugu heading a fantastic field of 16...

Australian-bred Igugu, the winner of nine of her 11 starts in South Africa including the Group 1 Durban July, has recovered from a slight setback and is a hot ante-post favourite for the finale to the Sizzling Summer Season in the Western Cape.

Bravura, Tales Of Bravery and talented three-year-old Gimmethegreenlight, winner of the recent Queen's Plate, are all in the line-up.

Absentees include Summer Cup winner Dancewiththedevil and Charity Mile winner Piere Jourdan as well as three-year-olds Variety Club and Jackson, who have accepted for the Cape Derby instead.

Igugu suffered a setback in training and had to miss the Paddock Stakes, her planned final preparatory run but the Mike de Kock stable says she has hardly missed a beat in getting back into full work.

She will be ridden by her regular jockey Anthony Delpech.

De Kock has also accepted with his Brazilian-bred gelding Ilsanpietro who won the Java Handicap and finished second in both the Victory Moon and the Summer Cup and will have Weichong Marwing in the irons.

The Joey Ramsden-trained Bravura , who won the Cape Derby two years ago but has only won two races since has been allocated top weight of 60kg and will meet Igugu on 0.5kg worse terms than in last year's Durban July when he finished seventh.

He ran in last year's Met and was expected to do much better than seventh behind Past Master but this term has won the Green Point Stakes and was fourth in the L'Ormarins Queen's Plate and looks to be back to his best.

He will have champion jockey Anton Marcus in the irons.