Charity Mile an option for William Robertson

Jack Milner

William Robertson, winner of the Grade 2 Topbet Joburg Spring Challenge, will be nominated to run in the Allied Steelroad Onamission Charity Mile at Turffontein on Saturday 29 October.

In spite of the fact he has a merit rating of 125 going into a handicap so will carry quite a hefty weight, trainer Corne Spies says the Charity Mile will be an option.

“We actually don’t have many alternatives and we do need to give him a run prior to the Gauteng Summer Cup,” said Spies.

“If my calculations are correct, he will probably carry around 61.5kg, but that’s what we have to deal with considering his current merit rating. But he is a big horse so should be able to shoulder the weight.

“We also have the Victory Moon a week later which is also a possibility.”

The Grade 3 Victory Moon Stakes is over 1800m and will be run on the Standside track at Turffontein on 5 November. The advantage of this race is that it is the winner will not incur a penalty of more than six points and there will be no penalty for placed runners.

“At the end of the day our decision will be draw dependant” added Spies. “There’s little point of running him with a big weight and he has a wide draw to overcome as well.

“Ideally, we would love to have him in a Pinnacle Stakes but there is none available for us. But the Summer Cup is what we are hoping to go for and that will be the main goal.”

There was a lot of controversy surrounding William Robertson in the Joburg Spring Challenge, nothing to do with the victory, but rather because jockey S’manga Khumalo made the choice not to ride the Rafeef gelding as the horses were about to be loaded into the starting stalls.

Khumalo said he felt unhappy with the horse going down to the start and did not want to take a chance. The start had to be delayed as a replacement jockey was taken down to the 1450m mark. In the end Muzi Yeni took the ride and went on to win the race.

Spies said that over the following few days nothing was found to be troubling the gelding. “After the whole fiasco he pulled up well. All good, no problem, we couldn’t find anything.

“The course vet was happy with him and at the yard on the Sunday he was fine. We had him fully vetted on the Monday and nothing was found.”