Photo by Racing and Sports
Saturday, 21 January 2012: South African Champion Sprinter for two years running and the first non Australian-bred horse to win the Grade 1 Hong Kong International Sprint at Sha Tin is making his Cape Town debut in the R600,000, Grade 1, Betting World Cape Flying Championship over 1000m on Saturday.
The last time J J The Jet Plane was in Cape Town he was at the start of a very arduous journey that took him from the Kenilworth quarantine station, via Newmarket to Hong Kong, in time for the International Sprint. The entire process taking just over three months, a long time to try and keep a race horse fit under quarantine conditions.
To land in Hong Kong two weeks prior to the race and then still get up to beat two world class sprinters such as Rocket Man (AUS) and Sacred Kingdom (AUS) was a phenomenal feat by trainer Lucky Houdalakis.
Saturday, JJ, as he is known locally, will try to perform another feat as he is coming back from a long layoff due to injuring a tendon in Dubai while in training for the Grade 1 Krisflyer International Sprint at Kranji in April 2011. But JJ has earned the distinction of being the perennial comeback kid.
Photo by Liesl King
With legs that perhaps do not conform to the rules of a perfect anatomy, this middle sized son of champion stallion Jet Master, returned from an overseas campaign that encompassed racing successfully in Dubai and England, before a change of trainer and perhaps a yearning for the warm climates of home led to a steady downhill spiral for the gelding.
A shadow of his former self he landed back in South Africa in 2009 to begin the long road to recovery under the care of his erstwhile trainer Houdalakis. He returned ready and as good as ever in 2010, stamping his authority on the local racing scene with two quick wins in the Grade 1 Casino Sprint (1200m) and the Grade 1 Mercury Sprint(1200m), both for the second time, by a combined 7.5L.
Houdalakis then took the brave decision to go for another overseas campaign, only this time he would train J J himself. After the momentous win in Hong Kong, J J marched onwards to Dubai where he added the Grade 2 Al Quoz Sprint to his list of victories, before injuring the tendon during training.
Saturday the comeback kid makes his eagerly awaited reappearance in the Cape Flying Championship, a race that is perhaps slightly shorter than he would like. But as Houdalakis explained at seven he is not getting any younger and there were no races in Johannesburg for him to contest, so the decision was made to come to Cape Town.
Photo by Liesl King
Despite having six Grade 1 victories behind his name, J J is unlikely to have it all his own way though as he lines up against the 2011 Equus Sprint Champion, the lighting fast mare, Val De Ra, whose best distance is a 1000m and the Cape champion, What A Winter. But if back to his best it should be no contest as J J The Jet Plane reminds the young upstarts who is the real King of the sprints.
