Upset of the decade in Summer Cup.
How did anyone manage to find the 100-1 winner of Saturday’s Betway Summer Cup?
Possibly via the old-fashioned method: in a dream.
Or maybe those who backed longshot Mocha Blend to win South Africa’s richest race were devotees of the chocolate-flavoured café latte.
There can’t have been many other reasons to wager hard-earned cash on such an apparent no-hoper.
If, before the big race, we’d asked the top tipsters to predict the Summer Cup finishing order, to a soul they would have put No 19 Mocha Blend in 19th or 20th place in the 20-runner field.
The upset result of the year, maybe the decade, had form analysts tearing out hair and questioning their role in life.
The winning filly had won just two of her previous eight starts – a maiden plate and a class 4 handicap, both in female company – and acquired her lofty 105 merit rating via placings in a couple of fillies’ Grade 2 races: the Woolavington (third) and the Gold Bracelet (fourth).
‘We’ll take our chances’
A promising young horse, certainly, but not in the same class as her Summer Cup opponents like Atticus Finch and King Pelles. Or so we thought.
A cynic might have reckoned the selection panel for the final field included Mocha Blend because it’s always nice to have a filly or two in the mix (good for tote turnover with lots of ladies in the big-day crowd!). Just a cynic, mind.
Before the race, trainer Frank Robinson, asked in a TV interview about his two runners’ chances, spoke glowingly of the fancied Madison Valley and said of Mocha Blend that she’d cracked an invite, so deserved to be in the contest, and, with a purse of R6-million on the table, “we’ll take our chances”.
Not a ringing recommendation. Nor was the fact that none of the jockeys who’d ridden Mocha Blend in her previous outings called for the booking, seeing Robinson turn to Durban journeyman Tristan Godden.
The filly delivered a first Grade 1 trophy for both jockey and trainer.
A factor that might have influenced punters to consider Mocha Blend, 40-1 runner-up Olivia’s Way, 8-1 third-placed The Ultimate King and 100-1 fourth Busstopinhounslow was their low weighting.
The Summer Cup, run over a demanding Turffontein 2000m, has recent history of low-weighted horses doing well.
Top marks to those who spotted that clue – hopefully you scooped the R355,689 Quartet payout (from a carryover megapool).
The day’s Pick 6 had a R5-million pool and paid a dividend of R1.8-million.
