Cloud hangs over Celestial City

Peter Muscutt, entrusted with the training of the now three-year-old son of Silvano out of Halfway To Heaven, last week said he hopes to have Celestial City back in training soon.

“He’s back on the farm at the moment,” said Muscutt.

“He had a little issue, which I won’t elaborate on. Hopefully he’ll be back in the next couple of months.

“We have no definite plans, but hopefully we will get him right for the (KwaZulu-Natal) season.”

Muscutt and his team face an extremely tight schedule to get Celestial City race ready as the KZN Champions Season kicks off in less than two months on Sunday 1 May at Scottsville. The first big race of the KZN season for three-year-olds is the WSB Guineas and WSB Fillies Guineas at Greyville scheduled for Saturday 7 May.

The Daily News 2000 for three-year-olds and Woolavington 2000 for three-year-old fillies is scheduled to be contested on 28 May.

Celestial City is also half-brother to both Rainbow Bridge and Golden Ducat

With Halfway To Heaven’s first three runners all Grade 1 winners, the expectations have always been very high that Celestial City would follow in his siblings’ footsteps. Halfway To Heaven’s fourth foal, the filly In Limbo, did not however perform as excellently, recording only one win and one place from eight starts.

If Celestial City does not make his debut this year as a three-year-old, the big question will be whether he will race at all.

If not, he won’t be the first multi-million rand purchase not to follow the career he was bred for.

A year before Celestial City was sold to Summerhill Equestrian’s Henning Pretorius for R7-million, Mike de Kock bought Masaki, as he was then known, for R9-Million at the 2019 Emperors Palace National Yearling Sale.

De Kock and Mark Richards of the Hong Kong Jockey Club shocked the crowd with their unrelenting bidding until De Kock secured Masaki for the record price on behalf of Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum of Dubai.

This colt by Silvano out of Quickwood, bred by Mary Slack’s Wilgerbosdrift Stud, subsequently had his name changed to Al Zaraqaan.

Now aged four, Al Zaraqaan reportedly suffered a career-ending injury in training before having the opportunity to show his mettle on the track.

Racegoers will undoubtedly be hopeful that Celestial City has not suffered the same fate.