THE RACE
Rum With Me, a precocious-looking son of Zacapa by the stallion Casual Trick, bred and owned by Oakridge Farms and presented in good nick for his baptism to racing by trainer Gary Subratie, won the Stewards’ Cup by 2 1/2 lengths after completing five furlongs (1000 metres) round in a time of 1:00.3 with fractions of 23.2 x 47.0 in a Maiden Condition race for native-bred two-year-olds.
After making short work of his fellow juveniles in the short dash, the full brother of Casual Drink came in for high praises from both trainer Subratie and owner/breeder Donald Wehby.
THE TRAINER’S COMMENTS
“He seems to be quite a promising sort. He has always been a good horse that has responded effortlessly in his training and he has never been one to disappoint in his various exercise spins.
Rum With Me has been coming along nicely, though still a little green with still a little time to go but this looks to be a good time of year to come forward with them (juveniles) in November going into December as we are looking forward to preparing them with more distant races in the future. This was a lively performance and now let us seen what he does from here.”
WHERE NEXT?
“We are contemplating racing him in the next Supreme Ventures race, which is the Pick-3 Challenge Trophy, later this month, which is run over seven furlongs (1,400 metres).
“Before going there, we have to see how he comes out of today’s (Saturday) race before we can proceed with any consideration for that event, but I think he should be fine.”
“His breeding is not bad at all as he is by Zacapa and Zacapa is from the strong Eight Thirty line, which means Rum With Me should get distance and should have good speed but let us see what he can do for it is still early days yet.
OWNER/BREEDER COMMENTS
“I am very pleased with the colt’s performance. I’ve had a chat with the colt’s rider, Dane Dawkins, who said that Rum With Me was waiting on the other horses to get closer and once they did, he (Rum With Me) motored away from them which is a very good sign.
“Dane said to me, that he pulled up by the six-furlong pole and he is really bred as a middle-distance horse and sprinting the five-round distance in one minute and three-fifths of a second is a great performance for a first-timer, and I do not think that he is quite ready as yet to really show his true worth in terms of releasing his best.
“Horse racing is a quite funny sport, so you have to keep your fingers crossed and hope that he will continue to improve and stay sound.
“Moving on, his trainer just intimated to me that he will be entering Rum With Me in the seven furlongs race (Pick-3 Challenge Trophy) along with the other stakes races. That for me is very good news and we will see how he comes off there. I am just hoping for the best,” a thoughtful Wehby offered.
