South Africa
Holding banker in Stayer's feature
Proper stayer out to show his best over more ground.
It is a relatively new race on The Met Day but trainer Glen Kotzen believes Holding Thumbs is one of the better bets on the Kenilworth caAn 18-time Group 1 winning trainer, Kotzen is delivering at a strike-rate of 10% through his 18-year training career across more than 12,000 starters.
Holding Thumbs has shown versatility through his 26 starts so far having won from 1600m to 2500m.
It is at those longer distances that the five-year-old is excelling and the 2800m of the Western Cape Stayers races is just what Kotzen believes is nearly perfect for the gelding.
Holding Thumbs is looking to string his third win in succession in this event and delivered a peak rating of 113 in his last start victory in the Group 3 Cape Of Good Hope Chairman's Cup (2500m) here at Kenilworth.
"The conditions will suit him for a change," Kotzen said.
"He gave the bottom-weight 13-kilos last start and the spread this time is 2.5-kilos.
Holding Thumbs' sire Vercingetorix was trained by Mike de Kock and raced mostly in Dubai but did not win over further than 2000-metres.
The dam, Withbatedbreath, ran fifth in the 2015 Group 1 South African Oaks (2450m) but also did not win beyond 1800-metres so Holding Thumbs is proving an exception even have run over 3200m.
"Hopefully he can be the banker for everyone and he is a very fit horse," Kotzen said.
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